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.