LAHORE    -   The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday declined the plea to immediately suspend a notification regarding acceptance of resignations of 43 Paki­stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs by the Speaker Na­tional Assembly.

Justice Shahid Karim heard the 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 Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP).

During the proceedings, the petitioner’s counsel Bar­rister Ali Zafar submitted a civil miscellaneous applica­tion, stating that the notifica­tion regarding acceptance of resignations of his clients by the Speaker National Assem­bly.had been attached with the application. He argued that the court had suspend­ed the orders of the Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of de-notifying the pe­titioners but the notification of the speaker regarding ac­ceptance of the resignations of the petitioners was not suspended as the same was not attached with the peti­tion. He submitted that the notification issued by the speaker was illegal and un­constitutional. He pleaded with the court to set aside the notification and also sus­pend the same till the final decision of the petition. 

However, the court de­clined the plea to imme­diately suspend the no­tification of the Speaker and issued notices to the respondents, including Speaker National Assembly, for March 7 and sought a reply on the application, be­sides extending the suspen­sion of de-notification of 43 PTI MNAs by the ECP. 

Meanwhile, the court also removed an objection to a petition filed by 70 former PTI MNAs, including Fawad Chaudhry, Shafqat Mehm­ood, against acceptance of their resignations and or­dered the office to fix the matter for hearing. 

The plea was fixed as an objection case before the court after the registrar’s office put an objection to it.