LAHORE   -    The Lahore High Court (LHC) Mon­day suspended the Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP) orders to de-notify several MNAs of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) belonging to Punjab. The court also stopped by-polls in the relevant constituencies till further orders. 

Justice Shahid Karim passed the orders on a petition, filed by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry and 68 other former MNAs against acceptance of their resignations by the National Assembly speaker and subsequent de-notification by the ECP. The court also issued notices for March 7 to the respondents on the petition as well as a plea to sus­pend the acceptance of resig­nations by the speaker. Bar­rister Ali Zafar represented the petitioners and pleaded with the court to set aside the orders of acceptance of resignations and subsequent de-notifica­tion as the legal requirements had not been fulfilled for the purpose. He submitted that before accepting the resigna­tions, the speaker did not hold an inquiry as per the Constitu­tion. He further submitted that the petitioners did not appear before the speaker for accep­tance of their resignations. The speaker cannot accept the res­ignations of members without hearing their stance, he con­tended. At this, the court, after hearing arguments of the peti­tioners’ counsel, suspended the orders of the commission of de-notifying several PTI MNAs from Punjab and stopped the commission from holding by-polls in the relevant constitu­encies. The court had already suspended the ECP orders of de-notifying 43 PTI MNAs and stopped elections in the rele­vant constituencies.