By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has fixed for hearing a petition filed by Members of National Assembly belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over acceptance of resignations.
According to details, Chief Justice of IHC will conduct hearing on the plea on Thursday (today).
The plea submitted by PTI lawmakers requested the court to instruct the speaker of National Assembly to fulfill his responsibility by accepting the resignations of the all members.
It was also submitted in the court that the speaker should call the members to confirm that the members have resigned as per their will under Article 64.
The joint petition states that the NA speaker “unlawfully” declared them as having resigned, which led to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification to de-seat them.
The petitioners maintained that the PTI MNAs tendered their resignations as per party policy on political grounds with the objective of reaching an agreement with the then “opposition parties for holding fresh elections so that a new government may be formed with a real mandate” of people.
Moreover, the petitioners submitted the records and transcript of the audio leaks regarding the PTI resignations that surfaced on September 25.
The plea stated that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, cabinet members and PML-N leaders were heard taking approval for accepting the resignations from PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
They said the government did not deny the audio leaks, but owned it on September 27, which backs the PTI’s stance that the resignations were not properly processed. The petitioners requested the court to direct the NA speaker to summon “112 MNAs” and petitioners for an inquiry whether the resignations were “voluntary and genuine”, and fulfilled the criteria laid out under Article 64 of the constitution.
The party appealed to the court to declare the the spaker and ECP’s order on their seats “illegal”, issued “without lawful authority and of no legal effect. They also stated that the orders were in violation of the Constitution and the law settled by the Supreme Court.
The PTI had appealed to the IHC to hold immediate hearing of their case. However, the request was turned down and the court decided to hold a hearing today (October 6). IHC CJ Athar Minallah will hear the plea today (Thursday).
The IHC on September 6, dismissed a similar plea filed by PTI leader Asad Umar on the party’s behalf, which sought the acceptance of the party’s members of the National Assembly in one go.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case filed by the PTI challenging the acceptance of resignations of 11 MNAs and not accepting a “piece-meal” resignation of all 123 lawmakers.
The IHC CJ declared former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s resignation acceptance order void and ordered every MNA to appear before NA speaker in person to get their resignation accepted.
Tuesday, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar announced that the party would move the high court against the acceptance of only 11 of over a hundred PTI lawmakers who had resigned en masse from the National Assembly in April.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Mr Umar said a series of recent audio leaks substantiated the PTI stance that the acceptance of the resignations of some of the 123 members of the National Assembly was a ‘political decision’ of the incumbent government.
He alleged that the Election Commission of Pakistan had become a ‘political party’ rather than an institution.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI members resigned en masse after the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan succeeded and ousted him from the Prime Minister’s office.
