‘What requirements not fulfilled’ in acceptance of MNAs resignations, asks Justice Shahid Karim n Speaker did not hold inquiry as per Constitution, replies PTI’s lawyer n PTI asks ECP to reschedule by-elections for NA 33 seats n Urges Speaker to assign office of Leader of the Opposition to party’s nominee.

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD    -    The Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday suspended the orders of Election Commission of de-no­tifying 43 MNAs of Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI). 

The court also stopped by-polls in the relevant constituencies till further orders. Justice Shahid Karim passed the orders on petition filed by Riaz Fatyana and 42 other former MNAs against acceptance of their resignations by the speaker National Assembly and subsequent action of the commission. The court also issued notices to the Election Commission and other respondents and sought reply.

During the proceedings, Barris­ter Ali Zafar represented the pe­titioner’s and pleaded with the court to set aside the orders of de-notifying his clients as the le­gal requirements had not been fulfilled for the purpose.

At this, the court questioned what requirements had not been fulfilled. The petitioners’ counsel submitted that, before accepting the resigna­tions, the speaker did not hold in­quiry as per Constitution. 

He further submitted that the pe­titioners did not appear before the speaker for acceptance of their res­ignations. The speaker could not ac­cept the resignations of members without hearing their stance, he contended. The court, after hearing arguments of the petitioners’ coun­sel, suspended the orders of the commission of de-notifying the pe­titioners and sought reply from re­spondents. Last month, the Election Commission had de-notified the 43 MNAs on a summary forwarded by the speaker National Assembly. The Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, after accept­ing resignations of 43 MNAs, had forwarded the summary to the commission for further action, as per law.

‘BY-POLLS FOR 33 NA SEATS’

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) on Wednesday asked the Election Commission of Pa­kistan (ECP) to reschedule the by-polls date from March 16 to 19 for 33 seats of National As­sembly. Last month, the elector­al watchdog had fixed March16 (Thursday) as the polling day for by-elections on 33 NA seats and March 19 for the by-polls on 31 seats of the lower house of parliament.

These seats had fallen vacant after Speaker National Assem­bly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accept­ed resignations of as many PTI MNAs in January this year.

PTI Secretary General Asad Umar submitted an applica­tion with the Election Commis­sion saying the ECP has fixed the polling day for 33 seats on a working day as March 16 would be Thursday. “Therefore, most of the voters would be working, and public, and private offices would be open.” 

Mr Umar showed his concerns that the holding of elections on a working day would deprive the majority of voters of their right to vote. He said that even if a local holiday was announced on March 16, then numerous voters could be still disenfran­chised and election turnout could be adversely affected. 

The application further said since by-election is supposed to be held within 60 days of the oc­currence of vacancy, thus ECP is requested to reschedule polling day to March 19 (Sunday). He added that such an adjustment would not prejudice the hold­ing of elections and would rath­er encourage reasonable turn­out in the interest of all parties. 

“We therefore hope the afore­said adjustment in the Polling Date would be notified at the earliest by the ECP,” the applica­tion concludes.

‘REPLACE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday urged the Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to “show some decency” and assign the office of leader of the opposi­tion in the lower house of the parliament to the party’s nom­inee by de-notifying the incum­bent opposition leader Raja Riaz Ahmad The major oppo­sition party made the demand soon after Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended the order of the speaker NA that had accept­ed resignations of 43 PTI MNAs in January this year

In their separate statements, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar and PTI Senior Vice Pres­ident Fawad Chaudhry said that in the wake of LHC’s verdict of suspending the NA Speaker’s “biased decision” on political basis, the incumbent opposition leader should vacate the seat. 

Asad said that the court sus­pended the decision made on the political basis of the speak­er and restored membership of 43 PTI MPs.

He underlined that Raja Riaz should start preparations to va­cate the chamber specified for the leader of the opposition.

Meanwhile, former informa­tion minister Chaudhry urged the NA speaker to issue a no­tification instantly regarding changing of the leader of oppo­sition in the National Assembly.

He said that taking everything to the court was not a good par­liamentary tradition.