- Court directs lawmakers to appear before NA speaker to formally withdraw resignations
LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC)’s Justice Shahid Karim on Friday restored 72 MNAs of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf de-notified by the Election Commissioner of Pakistan (ECP) and directed them to appear before the Speaker National Assembly to formally withdraw their resignations.
After hearing extensive arguments, Justice Shahid Karim reserved the decision and subsequently announced suspension of the ECP de-notification. The Justice instructed the NA speaker to reconsider the matter after hearing the petitioners once again, taking into account their arguments and concerns.
The decision comes as a result of multiple petitions filed by the 72 MNAs, urging the court to nullify the notifications issued by Speaker Pervaiz Ashraf, who accepted their resignations, and subsequently the ECP de-notified them, declaring their seats as vacant.
During the court proceedings, Barrister Ali Zafar, the counsel for the petitioners, argued that the resignations had been retracted before their acceptance. He questioned how the speaker could accept the resignations under such circumstances. “Acceptance of resignations without adhering to the legal framework will undermine the rules”, the counsel argued, suggesting it will be “malicious intent” on the part of the speaker.
The petitioner’s counsel further highlighted that the speaker failed to individually summon the MNAs to ascertain their voluntary decision to tender resignations. According to the counsel, the speaker had initially promised to call each MNA individually to determine their stance. However, when the time came, he accepted the resignations without following through on this commitment.
Barrister Ali Zafar urged the court that the collective resignations of 123 MNAs, including the petitioners, were solely aimed at reaching an agreement with opposition parties to facilitate fresh elections. The objective was to establish a new government with the true mandate of the people of Pakistan and resolve the current impasse, he added.
The petitioner argued that the then acting speaker, former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri, initially accepted the resignations. However, the new speaker, Pervaiz Ashraf, after assuming office, reversed the decision and instructed the secretariat to resubmit the resignations for verification, in accordance with the judgments of superior courts.
The speaker subsequently decided to conduct an inquiry and verify each resignation by individually contacting and confirming the willingness of each MNA to resign. However, when the MNAs were called for verification, they did not appear, resulting in the non-acceptance of their resignations.
As a result, neither did the MNAs approach the speaker for verification nor did he call them again, leading to the continuation of the status quo. Consequently, the original resignations became irrelevant in the context of the petitioners’ claims.
The petitioners further argued that the resignations were never officially notified or formally accepted by the National Assembly. Following the change of regime, the speaker declared that the verification process would start afresh. However, later on, the speaker, in violation of the law and his own ruling, accepted some resignations.
The petitioners maintain that the actions taken by the speaker and the ECP are illegal and against the law. They have requested the court to declare that the petitioners had withdrawn their resignations through their conduct, words, and written communication, in accordance with the law, prior to any acceptance of the resignations.
