QUETTA: Balochistan High Court (IHC) on Wednesday suspended the move of Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) to de-notify former Deputy Speaker National Assembly and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Qasim Suri.
Also read: IHC suspends Speaker NA’s notification of accepting resignations of 3 PTI MNAs
The current Speaker of National Assembly (NA) Raja Pervez Ashraf in January this year had accepted resignations of 35 PTI MNAs, including that of Qasim Suri, in what appeared to be a move to secure PM Shehbaz Sharif from impending threat of No-Trust move.
Also read: Sindh PTI MNAs approach SHC against acceptance of resignations
After decision by PTI leadership to return to NA and outnumber ‘friendly’ opposition led by dissident Raja Riaz, who had already committed to contest next elections on PMLN ticket, the Speaker NA Raja Pervez Ashraf started accepting resignations of PTI MNAs which were pending for verification purpose since April 2022. The ECP too acted spontaneously and de-notified the same MNAs.
Several PTI MNAs had moved to Islamabad and Lahore High Courts and successfully got overturned the Speaker’s verdict.
Also read: LHC suspends ECP’s notification of de-notifying PTA MNAs
Qasim Suri too had filed a petition in BHC challenging the ECP’s notification, to which the Balochistan High Court issued verdict today, suspending ECP’s notification of de-seating Suri and restraining the ECP from holding by polls on the seat in NA-265 (Quetta).
