Daily Times

A larger bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday served notices to Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri and other respondents in case regarding delay in summoning of NA’s session and sought comments till April 22.

The larger bench headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Baber Sattar heard the case filed by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N’s) lawmaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi. The petitioner’s lawyer adopted the stance that the NA’s session was scheduled for April 16, but it was postponed till April 22. He said that election for the new speaker of the national assembly was included in the agenda and there was time limit of at least seven days for this. The National Assembly currently was working without the speaker while the current deputy speaker was using the powers of that post.

The chief justice remarked that the selection of speaker would be done on April 22, according to the agenda item. The lawyer said that the deputy speaker had not told any reason to postpone the NA session, adding that he just wanted to delay the process. The lawyer said that the case was related to the parliamentary proceeding but there were the decision of Supreme Court in similar matters. He said that the top court suspended the ruling of speaker NA.

The chief justice remarked that the petitioner had not solid ground and this court couldn’t issue order in this way. The court said let the session be conducted as it had been summoned on April 22.

The court said that the Parliament’s disgrace couldn’t be allowed, adding that it had no reason to doubt on summon of NA session. The lawyer prayed the court to serve notices to respondent for answer.