— Fawad calls for replacement of Riaz as PTI emerges as largest opposition party in National Assembly
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted relief to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) by suspending the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that denotified 70 lawmakers of the former ruling party who resigned en masse last year.
Justice Shahid Karim issued notices to the tribunal and National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, among others, directing them to respond to the ruling by March 7.
The future of the by-elections in the constituencies, which were represented by the de-notified MPs and originally scheduled to take place on March 16 and 19 in two phases, now hangs in the balance due to the latest development.
More than 120 MPs loyal to former prime minister Imran Khan resigned en masse on April 11, two days after he was ousted in a contentious vote of no-confidence marred by unprobed allegations of military intervention.
Qasim Khan Suri, then deputy speaker of the National Assembly who was acting as speaker after Asad Qaiser’s resignation, accepted the resignation letters on April 15.
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.
Such situations require a lot of thought process, he had said, declaring he will not accept the letters until he was completely satisfied they were not stepping down under pressure.
However, after Khan hinted at “testing” the prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, through a confidence vote in a tit-for-tat move similar to the one he himself had faced, Ashraf hastily accepted the resignations and sent the list to the commission.
The ruling came after a plea was filed by lawmakers challenging the approval of their resignations.
On February 8, the LHC suspended a similar order by the commission regarding a group of 43 MPs.
The judgement on Monday has resulted in PTI emerging as the largest opposition party in the lower house, prompting Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the opposition party, to “immediately” begin the process to replace “turncoat” opposition leader Raja Riaz Ahmed.
لاہور ہائیکورٹ نے اسپیکر اور الیکشن کمیشن کا تحریک انصاف کے ممبران اسمبلی کے استعفی قبول کرنے کا فیصلہ معطل کر دیا ہے، اسپیکر فوری طور پر نئے لیڈر آف اپوزیشن کے تقرر کا عمل شروع کریں، تحریک انصاف کے ممبران کی رعسمداد اب اسمبلی میں تمام جماعتوں سے زیادہ ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 20, 2023
