PESHAWAR, March 28: The four expelled members of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court challenging their controversial resignations and the notifications issued by the NWFP assembly’ s secretary declaring their seats vacant. The members, Maulana Dildar Ahmad, Ms Rukhsana Raz, Ms Yasmin Khan and Gorsaran Lal, filed identical writ petitions requesting the high court to declare the impugned notifications of the secretary issued on Mar 25 as illegal, unconstitutional, without jurisdiction and without lawful authority.

They requested the court to declare their resignations as pieces of forgery and violative of the law. They further prayed that the petitioners be declared MPAs of the NWFP Assembly for all intents and purposes.

The petitioners requested the court to direct the Chief Election Commissioner not to declare the their seats vacant and not to hold elections on those seats till the final decision of the writ petition.

They have also sought interim relief from the court praying that pending disposal of their writ petitions the impugned notifications may be suspended and the petitioners may be allowed to carry out their work in accordance with law. Furthermore, they prayed that the impugned notifications should not be published in the official gazette.

A three-member committee of the JUI(F) comprising MNAs, Maulana Amanullah, Qari Fayyazur Rehman Alvi and Shujaul Mulk, had on March 25 announced at a press conference that the four petitioners had been expelled from the party for violating party discipline during the recent senate polls on March 6.

They had also announced that the four MPAs had voluntarily handed over their resignations to the party which were forwarded to the assembly’s speaker for taking further action. The same day the assembly secretary issued notifications announcing their resignations and forwarded the said notifications to the Chief Election Commissioner for filling the four vacant seats.

The petitioners stated that they had voted for the candidates/panel of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in accordance with their conscience. They added that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was on record to have stated that all the 39 MPAs of JUI(F) had voted in favour fo the MMA’s panel.

They stated that a committee was constituted to inquire into the wastage of any vote of the party in the senate elections. They added that the committee had interviews the petitioners and other members of the party and inquired about their grievances against the present government.

After the interview, they added, the committee asked them to write their names on a blank paper at the bottom so that the grievance of each and every member were written over his name and sent to the chief minister. The petitioner claimed that on March 26 the news of the petitioners alleged resignations appeared in newspapers.