PESHAWAR: Extending its stay order against by-elections in 24 National Assembly constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the assembly’s speaker and Election Commission of Pakistan to file response to the matter within seven days.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar fixed March 15 for next hearing into two identical petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s 24 former MNAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the acceptance of their resignations by the National Assembly speaker and their subsequent de-notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

It declared that the stay order issued on the previous date would continue to be effective until the next hearing.

The bench warned that if the respondents failed to file their respective replies to the petitions, it would decide the matter in their absence.

PHC seeks speaker’s reply to PTI petitions in seven days

Polling on those 24 seats was previously scheduled for March 16 and March 19, respectively.

A section officer of the National Assembly appeared before the bench and said the counsel for the speaker was abroad and he may be allowed more time for filing the reply.

When the bench asked him how much time was required, he replied that the speaker had requested at least 15 days for submitting the reply.

The bench observed that it would allow seven days’ time for that purpose. It added that if the counsel was abroad, the speaker might hire another lawyer.

The petitioners requested the court to set aside four notifications issued by the NA speaker and the ECP on the matter.

They prayed the court to declare the speaker’s act of accepting their resignations a violation of the law in line with the Supreme Court judgements.

One of the petitions was filed by eight of the ex-MNAs whose resignations were accepted by the speaker on Jan 17 and the same day the ECP issued notification to de-notify them.

These petitioners include former NA speaker Asad Qaiser, six ex-federal ministers Pervez Khattak, Murad Saeed, Omar Ayub Khan, Ali Amin Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri and Sheharyar Afridi and ex-MNA Imran Khattak.

The other petition was jointly filed by 16 of the ex-MNAs whose resignations were accepted by the speaker on Jan 20 and the ECP had de-notify them through a notification the same day.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023