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LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday issued notices to Speaker National Assembly and others, summoning responses in petition by Members of National Assembly belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), challenging the acceptance of their resignation without due process.
This comes almost after a week when the LHC had suspended Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s action to denotify them as members of the National Assembly (MNAs).
LHC judge Justice Shahid Karim heard the petition, filed by 42 PTI leaders, including Riaz Fatyana, and directed the speaker to submit his reply till March 7.
It may be mentioned here that in its judgement on February 10, the LHC had not suspended the speaker’s action to accept their resignations, which had been submitted in April last following the ouster of PTI Chairman Imran Khan as prime minister through a no-confidence vote, saying notification was not attached to the previous petition.
Also read: LHC issues written verdict, directs ECP to hold Punjab elections in 90 days
The notification issued by the speaker’s secretariat has now been attached to the petition, pleading the court to declare it null and void.
Following LHC verdict of suspending the ECP notification, the PTI lawmakers tried to attend the National Assembly session but it was abruptly adjourned by the deputy speaker to thwart their bid.
Later, speaker’s office issued a statement claiming that the LHC had upheld Mr Ashraf’s decision in its detailed verdict as his notification had not been suspended.
The detailed verdict dated Feb 10 stated that “the notification of the NA speaker on January 22 has not been attached (though challenged) and thus no interim relief can be considered to that extent.”
It added that the ECP notification will remain “suspended and the election schedule for the seats shall not be announced by the ECP”. “The process of by-elections to these shall remain suspended,” the verdict read.
