LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday suspended the action of Speaker National Assembly accepting the resignations of 43 MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan from holding by-elections in those constituencies.

The court admitted the petition of Riaz Fatyana and others and issued notices to the federal government, Speaker NA and ECP.

Earlier, the petitioners’ counsel contended that all the petitioners had withdrawn their resignations and personally requested the speaker not to de-notify them. He argued that the speaker accepted the resignations without adopting due process of law.

He said the ECP also not inquired into this aspect of the matter and announced election schedule for by-elections on the said constituencies. He also alleged that the speaker and the ECP did not follow the law rather got dictation from the political high-ups.

The speaker did not give a mandatory opportunity of personal hearing to the MNAs before accepting their resignations, he added.

He further contended that the resignations were based on political considerations only to force the government to hold elections and added that this aspect was never denied by the speaker and all the petitioners were asked to return to the parliament.

He said when the petitioners opted to take their seats and withdrew their resignations, the speaker unlawfully and with malafide intention accepted the resignations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023