ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court wondered on Friday whether it could intervene in the matter involving resignations that had been tendered by lawmakers of the PTI and MQM.

“Can the Supreme Court intervene when the proceedings are pending in parliament,” asked Justice Amir Hani Muslim, member of a three-judge bench hearing two petitions of PML-N’s Senator Zafar Ali Shah.

The petitioner had sought a declaration that the seats stood vacant from the date the lawmakers tendered their resignation before the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman.

Also read: MQM withdraws resignations, announces to rejoin parliament

The court had clubbed together the two petitions on Sept 16.

Meanwhile, MQM leader Farooq Sattar announced along with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at a press conference that his party would withdraw its resignations from the assemblies and Senate after the government accepted its demand of constituting a committee to redress its grievances.

During the hearing, Justice Muslim inquired how the court could intervene unless the speaker of the National Assembly decided the matter. He asked who determined the resignations under Article 64 of the Constitution.

Senator Shah said the proceedings in parliament and the authority of the speaker were different issues and the resignation tendered by PTI members had been pending before the later for eight months.

He also referred to the Oct 5 ruling of Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani who had rejected the resignation of MQM members.

Copies of the ruling had been sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), National Assembly speaker and the registrars of the Supreme Court and the high courts, the petitioner said.

When Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali asked whether the petition regarding the PTI had become infructuous with the return of the party’s lawmakers to the assemblies, Senator Shah said the speaker should give a ruling if he considered the resignation to have lost its significance.

No lawyer appeared on behalf of the MQM, but senior counsel Hamid Khan, representing PTI legislators, said only 19 members of the party had received court notices.

When the court asked the respondents to submit rejoinders to the petition, the PTI counsel sought a month’s time, saying several members were abroad.

The court ordered its office to make the Senate ruling part of the proceedings and adjourned the hearing for a month with a directive to re-issue notices to the MQM members.

Leader of Opposition in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan requested the court to delete his name from the list of respondents since he had no legal or constitution role in the matter of resignation of the members.

Senator Shah argued that the leader of the house had issued a statement that he would bring the MQM members back to the upper house.

The petitioner had challenged the members’ right to return to the parliament after an accord for the formation of an inquiry commission on allegations of malpractices in the 2013 general elections. The members had stayed away for over seven months after submitting their resignations.

In the second petition, filed on Aug 17, the senator pleaded that any attempt to allow the MQM members to retake their seats in view of any understanding between the party and the government would amount to violation of the Constitution and election rules.

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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