LHC suspends ECP's order de-notifying 43 PTI MNAs

The Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended on Wednesday the resignations of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, Aaj News reported.

The high court also put by-elections in 43 constituencies on hold. The decision was taken by Justice Shahid Karim while hearing a petition filed by PTI MNAs against National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz's acceptance of their resignations and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s de-notification orders.

The LHC also issued notices to the federal government and the ECP and instructed them to submit their responses on the matter at the next hearing.

NA Speaker accepts resignations of 43 more PTI MNAs

The PTI had resigned en masse from the lower house of Parliament following the ouster of PTI chief Imran Khan in April last year.

Since then, the resignation of a total of 80 MNAs has been accepted – 69 were accepted last month and 11 in July last year. These members were de-notified by the ECP immediately after the speaker accepted them.

44 PTI MNAs to withdraw resignation from NA: Asad Umar

However, later, PTI's Asad Umar said that 44 PTI lawmakers decided to withdraw their resignations from the National Assembly.

In a tweet, he said emails in this regard have been sent to the NA speaker. The decision to withdraw resignations was taken on orders of former prime minister and party chairman Imran Khan after the speaker refused to accept all the resignations together, Umar said.