By Special Correspondent
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification to de-notify 43 members parliament of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as it heard the plea against the acceptance of the resignations by the speaker national assembly.
The Imran-led party had approached the LHC against the acceptance of the resignations of the 43 PTI MNAs by speaker national assembly, Raja Pervez Ashraf despite the fact that they announced to withdraw it publicly.
Lahore High Court judge Justice Shahid Karim heard the case and restricted the ECP from holding by-elections in the 43 constituencies until further orders.
LHC issued orders on PTI plea
The court also issued notices to the NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, federal government and the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The court issued directives on a plea filed by Riaz Fatyana and other PTI leaders challenging the acceptance of their resignations as MNAs by Speaker national assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
In the petition, the PTI leaders accused the Speaker of accepting resignations to ‘politically victimize’ them. They pleaded to the court to nullify the decision of speaker Raja Pervaiz Asharaf and the ECP order.
ECP order
On January 25, the ECP de-notified 43 PTI members of the National Assembly following the acceptance of their resignations by Speaker national assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
The federal government accepted the resignations in an apparent bid to oust the opposition lawmakers from the house even after the announcement of PTI MNAs’ return to the National Assembly.
The de-notified PTI MNAs included Riaz Fatyana, Sardar Tariq Hussain, Mohammad Yaqub Sheikh, Murtaza Iqbal, Sardar Mohammad Khan Leghari, Zile Humma, Rukhsana Naveed, Ghazala Saifi, Nousheen Hamid, Sobia Kamal Khan and others. Ashraf had already accepted resignations of 70 PTI members in two phases.
It is to mention here that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had announced resignations from the National Assembly on April 11 last year, minutes before the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the new prime minister.
