LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday suspended an order of the Punjab Assembly speaker and allowed 18 MPAs of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to attend the Dec 21 session summoned by the governor requiring Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to obtain a vote of confidence.

Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Saba Sadiq and other MPAs were barred by speaker Sibtain Khan from attending 15 sittings of the assembly through two different orders issued on July 7 and Oct 23.

The MPAs were represented by advocates Rana Asadullah Khan, Mansoor Usman Awan, Hamza Shehram Sarwar and others.

The lawyers argued before the court that the petitioners being elected members of the assembly had an inalienable right to participate in the session being held on Wednesday.

They argued that the law provided a ban for 15 days only but the speaker unlawfully imposed a ban on the petitioners for attending 15 sittings of the assembly.

They asked the court to suspend the decisions of the speaker regarding the ban on the participation of the MPAs in the assembly sessions for being unconstitutional.

Opposing the petitions, speaker’s counsel Imtiaz Rashid Siddiqui argued that the interim relief sought by the petitioners tantamount to final relief, which could not be granted at this stage. He urged the court to dismiss the civil miscellaneous application filed by the petitioners.

Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, in his written order, reproduced rule 210 of the Rules of Procedure of the Punjab Assembly of the Punjab 1997 and observed that sub-rule 3 of the rule 210 was very much clear on the subject that period of absence after order to withdraw would be for 15 days and not for 15 consecutive sittings of the assembly.

The judge suspended the impugned decisions of the speaker and allowed the petitioners to participate and vote, if needed, in the session of the assembly summoned by the governor requiring the chief minister to secure a vote of confidence.

The judge adjourned the hearing of the case till Jan 19, 2023.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2022