ISLAMABAD: Despite a court order suspending the election watchdog’s order regarding their de-notification, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf appears in no mood to allow 32 members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to attend the NA session today.

Sources in the National Assembly said the speaker was adamant that he would not allow the former ruling party members, who had tendered resignations from the house following Imran Khan’s ouster in April last year, to attend the session unless his office received the certified copy of the high court order that resulted in the suspension of the Election Commission’s notification.

After their resignation letters had been accepted by the speaker, the PTI MNAs challenged the decision and subsequent de-notification in the Lahore High Court. The court directed the ECP to suspend the order. As many as 70 MNAs had filed petitions with the LHC, but the judge only extended the interim relief to lawmakers elected from Punjab and advised others to approach relevant courts.

Issuing the interim order on petitions filed by Shafqat Mahmood and others, Justice Shahid Karim also suspended the process of by-elections in the petitioners’ constituencies. On Feb 8, the judge suspended another notification of the ECP regarding the acceptance of resignations of 43 PTI MNAs. However, Justice Karim did not comment on the decision of the National Assembly speaker to accept the resignation letters.

Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, who represented the petitioners, had contended that under the law, the Speaker could not accept the resignation of any MNA without following a three-pronged procedure prescribed by the Constitution. He pointed out that every MNA has to submit an application in his own handwriting and the resignations must be voluntary. For verification of these matters, Senator Zafar said each of the legislators had to appear before the speaker in person and confirm that they had submitted the resignation of their own accord.

Barrister Zafar had said Speaker Ashraf had initially questioned the acceptance of en masse resignations by Qasim Suri, who was deputy speaker when the PTI was in power, on the ground that the procedure had not been observed. He said the speaker had earlier told a PTI delegation that he would call everyone individually to verify the resignations.

In line with the ruling of the speaker, the Election Commission had de-notified 32 PTI lawmakers on Jan 17, and 35 on Jan 20, followed by 43 approvals on Jan 25.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2023