ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed PTI’s petition against National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for ‘piecemeal’ acceptance of resignations of its MNAs.
On August 1, the PTI moved the IHC challenging the acceptance of resignations of only 11 party lawmakers out of a total of 123.
During proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah declared former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s resignation acceptance order “void” and ordered every MNA to appear before the NA speaker in person to get their resignation accepted.
Justice Minallah also rejected PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry’s plea to take up the case with a larger bench.
Two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister — through a no-confidence motion moved by the then-opposition — all PTI MNAs resigned en masse on April 11.
Suri — who was performing his duties as the acting NA speaker after Asad Qaiser resigned as the speaker — had accepted all the resignations on April 15.
However, once Ashraf was appointed as the speaker, he decided to verify the resignations of all MNAs by interviewing them individually.
The decision was taken after reports that several resignations submitted by the lawmakers were typed and not handwritten — which is against the NA’s rules.