IHC dismisses PTI’s plea against acceptance of 11 MNAs resignations

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against the acceptance of resignations of its 11 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) by the NA speaker, APP reported.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah, who heard the case, also declared the notification issued by the then deputy speaker Qasim Suri with regard to the acceptance of PTI MNAs’ resignations as illegal.

Rejecting the PTI’s request to form a larger bench on the matter, CJ Minallah observed that the court could not interfere in the affairs of parliament.

"The (incumbent) NA speaker had satisfied himself over the resignations of 11 members of PTI before approving the same and they had no authority to examine the standard of his (speaker’s) satisfaction," he noted.

Resignations of MNAs: PTI moves IHC over ‘phase-wise’ acceptance of letters

Chief Justice Minallah questioned whether it was not the responsibility of MNAs to perform their duties of representing the public until their resignations were approved. “There is a need to change our thinking to respect the parliament,” he said.

The court suggested the PTI MNAs appear before the NA speaker in person to verify their resignations.

The chief justice asked whether the acting NA speaker (Qasim Suri) had verified the resignations by summoning members individually.

He observed that the IHC court had given a verdict in 2015 regarding the method of acceptance of (legislators’) resignations and instructed the PTI lawyer to read it.

As per the constitution, it was the responsibility of an elected member to serve the people of his or her constituency for a period of five years.

Earlier, NA speaker’s counsel Irfan Qadir pleaded that the then-acting speaker Qasim Suri had taken the decision of accepting the resignations to avoid a no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan.

He said he was not criticizing anybody but one person was contesting an election in nine constituencies.

Additional Attorney General Munwar Dogal and Irfan Qadir also submitted written comments to the court.

PTI plea on phase-wise acceptance of resignations: IHC issues notices to NA speaker, ECP, others

PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry argued that the NA speaker had adopted a ‘pick and choose policy in the acceptance of MNAs’ resignations, as only 11 out of 123 resignations were accepted.

The constitution had given several grounds to dissolve the National Assembly on the prime minister’s recommendation, he added.

He also asked the court to form a larger bench to hear the case, which was rejected by the bench.

After the lawyers concluded their arguments, the court dismissed the petition and asked the PTI members to appear before the speaker for verification of their resignations.