LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday suspended an order of the Punjab Assembly speaker and allowed 18 MPAs of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to attend the December 21 session, and vote if needed, summoned by the governor requiring Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to obtain a vote of confidence.

Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Saba Sadiq and other MPAs were barred by speaker Sibtain Khan from attending 15 sittings of the assembly through two different orders issued on July 7 and October 23.

The MPAs were represented by advocates Rana Asadullah Khan and others.

The lawyers argued before the court that the petitioners being elected members of the assembly had an inalienable right to participate in the session being held on Wednesday (today).

They argued that the law provided a ban for 15 days only but the speaker unlawfully imposed a ban on the petitioners for attending 15 sittings of the assembly.

They asked the court to suspend the impugned decisions of the speaker regarding the ban on the participation of the MPAs in the assembly sessions.

Opposing the petitions, speaker’s counsel argued that the interim relief sought by the petitioners was tantamount to final relief, which could not be granted at this stage.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022