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.