ISLAMABAD: Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced on Thursday the National Assembly Secretariat has yet to receive the order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the suspension of the acceptance of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers’ resignations.
In a video statement, Ashraf said the government was only informed about the case and had not yet received any official notice. He said the decision will be consulted with lawyers and experts once the order is received.
More than 120 MPs loyal to former prime minister Imran Khan resigned en masse after he was ousted in April of last year, following a contentious vote of no-confidence marred by unprobed allegations of military intervention.
His deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri — who was performing his duties as acting speaker after then-incumbent Asad Qaiser’s resignation — accepted the letters before leaving office.
However, once Ashraf was elected as the speaker, he decided to verify the resignations by interviewing lawmakers individually, but instead decided in favour of stalling the entire process by blaming it on the lawmakers’ reluctance to step down.
However, last month, when Khan signaled the return of his party to parliament with the intention of appointing one of its members as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Ashraf promptly approved the resignations.
The Lahore High Court (LHC), however, suspended the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify the lawmakers after a group of opposition MPs, whose resignations were accepted, filed a petition.
It also postponed the by-elections in the constituencies represented by the de-notified members, originally scheduled to take place in two phases on March 16 and 19, until further notice.
Subsequently, on Thursday morning, several PTI lawmakers arrived at the Parliament House with the aim of choosing their own opposition leader by replacing Raja Riaz Ahmad, the “turncoat” incumbent.
The Senate’s opposition leader, Shahzad Waseem, spoke to reporters outside the Secretariat and said the speaker is bound to respect the order and that the court has deemed the acceptance of resignations as illegal.
He expressed hope that the PTI lawmakers will have their own opposition leader.
