Court cannot give orders to NA speaker: IHC CJ Athar Minallah
The Chief justice Islamabad high court (IHC) Athar Minallah on Thursday while hearing PTI’s petition on approval of resignations of elected party lawmakers said that, the court cannot give orders to National Assembly (NA) speaker.
”Wondered the judge, while acknowledging that the rest of the PTI MNA’s resignations are yet to be accepted. People trusted the representatives and sent them to Parliament,” he remarked.
Justice Minallah said that the cold has to respect the Parliament; a similar petition was dilled like this in the past as well. “Is this the political party’s policy?
“This court cannot issue orders to the speaker of the National Assembly,” remarked Justice Athar Minallah. “This is a political issue and Parliament is the place to resolve political tussles. You should hold dialogue with political parties to resolve problems,” said the IHC CJ.
Background of the case:
On 11 April, all of PTI MNA’s resigned right after the ouster of Former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan. Former deputy speaker Qasim Suri – who was performing his duties as acting NA speaker after Asad Qaiser resignation had accepted all the resignations on April 15.
All the PTI MNAs resigned en masse on April 11, two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister through a no-confidence motion moved by the then-opposition. Former deputy speaker Qasim Suri who was performing his duties as acting NA speaker after Asad Qaiser resignation – had accepted all the resignations on April 15.
However, once Raja Pervez Ashraf was elected as the speaker, he decided to verify the resignations by interviewing lawmakers individually. Later, the resignations of PTI members were de-sealed and Raja accepted 11 of them. The joint petition, filed by 10 out of the 11 lawmakers, states that the NA speaker “unlawfully” declared them as having resigned, which led to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification to de-seat them.
