Court issues notification to concerned authorities seeking their replies
\n LAHORE
\nIn a major development, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) order that de-notified 43 MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
\nThe high court also stayed the by-elections on the 43 constituencies of the de-notified MNAs till further notice.
\nThe directives were passed during the hearing of a plea filed by Riaz Fatyana and other lawmakers against the approval of their resignations by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf. The ECP had de-notified the lawmakers after the speaker sent their resignations to the electoral body.
\nThe de-notified MNAs last week filed a plea in the LHC to set aside the NA speaker\u2019s approval of resignations and ECP\u2019s notification declaring the seats vacant.
\nDuring the hearing, presided over by Justice Shahid Karim, the petitioner\u2019s counsel Barrister Ali Zafar contended that legal requirements were not fulfilled while accepting the resignations.
\nJustice Karim inquired about which legal requirements were not met.
\nAt this, Barrister Zafar said that the speaker did not hold an inquiry in line with the constitution before accepting the resignations.
\nLater, the court issued notices to the ECP and other parties, seeking their replies over the plea.
\nThe PTI lawmakers had tendered their resignations en masse after the Imran Khan-led government was ousted via a no-confidence motion in April of last year.
\nThe PTI had claimed resignations were accepted by former deputy speaker Qasim Suri in absence of a speaker after Asad Qaiser\u2019s resignation.
\nSpeaker Ashraf, after his election, approved the resignations of 11 PTI lawmakers in July 2022. He had stalled the process stating the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification.
\nHowever, contrary to his stance, he quickened the process once PTI in January announced its return to the assembly and \u201ctest\u201d the PM through a confidence vote. The PTI resignations were accepted by NA Speaker Ashraf in four stages: 11 in the first phase, 35, 34, and 43 in the second, third, and fourth phases, respectively.
\n ECP has so far announced by-elections on 33, and 31 constituencies on March 16 and March 19, respectively. However, the by-polls on the 43 constituencies were yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Court issues notification to concerned authorities seeking their replies LAHORE In a major development, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) order that de-notified 43 MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The high court also stayed the by-elections on the 43 constituencies of the de-notified MNAs till further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-312565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n