PESHAWAR, April 4: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday restrained the chief election commissioner and others concerned from taking any action till Wednesday against two ex-MPAs expelled by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) from the party.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Raj Mohammad Khan will resume hearing on Wednesday writ petitions filed by the two former members, Maulana Dildar Ahmad and Gorsaran Lal, challenging notification issued by the assembly’s secretary regarding their resignation.

The respondents in these petitions are: speaker of the NWFP assembly, secretary provincial assembly, chief election commissioner (CEC), provincial election commissioner and secretary of the election commission.

The bench allowed two former women MPAs, Rukhsana Raz and Yasmeen Khalid, to file amended writ petitions because of developments which took place after they had filed petitions against notifications issued by the assembly’s secretary.

The four former legislators have disputed their resignations sent to the assembly’s speaker by an inquiry committee of the JUI(F) which had charged them with violating party discipline in senate elections. On the basis of the resignations, disputed by the legislators, the assembly’s secretary issued notifications on March 25 about their having quit the seats, and sent the same to the CEC for filling the four vacant seats.

The CEC on March 31 named Fouzia Naz and Saira Bano as MPAs elected on the two vacant seats reserved for women. The CEC has not taken any step for filling the other two seats, one general and the other reserved for minorities.