Daily Times

Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday removed objections put forth by the Registrar’s Office on a plea by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers and fixed it for further proceedings. Following the PTI chief’s ouster through a vote of no confidence, PTI lawmakers tendered their resignations in protest at the National Assembly. Although the resignations were accepted by then – NA deputy speaker and PTI leader Qasim Suri, the move was reversed by the incumbent NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

Marred by controversy, the speaker had opted for a phase-wise strategy to accept the resignations – a matter the courts chose not to intervene in. Ashraf had insisted he had reasons to doubt the resignations were not tendered by the MNAs themselves. His argument was further strengthened when a PTI lawmaker challenged his resignation in court which was later reversed.

After the approval of 43 of said resignations on January 24, the total number of accepted resignations reached 124 – 123 PTI MNAs and one of Sheikh Rashid, the chief of the Awami Muslim League. The ECP had also denotified them based on the speaker’s decision. However, the acceptance had come only after the PTI leaders sent a request to the speaker stating that they were withdrawing their resignations. They also informed the ECP that the speaker and the NA Secretariat had been apprised of their decision.

“If the speaker accepts the resignations, we should not be de-notified,” their request to the ECP had stated. The leaders had then knocked on the LHC’s door seeking a reversal of their identification; only to be told by the Registrar’s Office that the matter could not be challenged in court as it was purely concerned with the parliament and deemed the issue to be outside of the high court’s jurisdiction. The PTI’s lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, contended that the courts could take up the matter as it stands in violation of the Constitution. The PTI lawmakers maintained that they had withdrawn their resignation by conduct, words, and in writing in accordance with the law prior to their acceptance, thereby rendering the actions of the speaker and the ECP ‘illegal and unlawful’. The LHC has removed the Registrar’s objections and fixed the plea for hearing.