ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday said a decision taken by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri in April this year, to accept the resignation letters of his party lawmakers without due verification, was against the law and Constitution.

The bench endorsed the phase-wise accep­t­ance of these resignations — a process initiated by incumbent speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

“The purported notification, dated [April 13], was, therefore, issued in violation of the Constitution and the principles and law enunciated by the superior courts as highlighted in the aforementioned judgement,” the high court order said, while referring to a judgement in the Zafar Ali Shah case.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed that the deputy speaker had no right to accept the resignations, adding that what Mr Suri did was against the law, reported Dawn.com.

Court rejects plea challenging phase-wise acceptance of resignations, tells PTI to approach NA speaker

As it dismissed the petition against the piecemeal acceptance of resignations, the high court told the PTI, represented by Faisal Chaudhry, to approach the NA speaker with a request to expedite the process as the court could not intervene in the affairs of parliament.

Mr Chaudhry argued that an inquiry or verification was not a condition for the acceptance of resignation under Article 64 of the Constitution and added that the resignations were accepted by the acting speaker vide notification, dated April 13.

He contended that the current speaker was not empowered to review the decision of his predecessor, acting speaker Qasim Suri. However, the court said the lawyer could not persuade the bench with his arguments.

During the hearing, Irfan Qadir raised multiple objections on behalf of the National Assembly Secretariat regarding the maintainability of the petition as he relied on the judgement of the IHC in the Syed Zafar Ali Shah case.

He said the speaker initiated verifying the resignations in light of the principles and law highlighted in the aforementioned judgement. The judgement made it mandatory for the speaker to “be satisfied that three factors are established; firstly, that it is tendered voluntarily; secondly, it is genuine; and lastly, that the member actually intended to relinquish, relieve or quit the post, position or seat and thereby vacate the seat.”

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2022