The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday sought replies from National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and others in a civil miscellaneous application challenging the speaker’s acceptance of resignations of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers. Justice Shahid Karim presided over the hearing where in the petitioners also requested the court to suspend the speaker’s notification through which their resignations had been accepted in order to be able to join the NA to be a part of parliamentary affairs. Earlier, the same court had granted interim relief to the petitioner by suspending the de-notification of the petitioners restraining the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding by-elections in those constituencies. However, the court then had not entrained the “acceptance of resignations by the speaker” observing that the impugned notification through which resignations were accepted was not attached to the petition, therefore, the same could not be suspended.
However, the petitioner’s counsel, barrister Ali Zafar, had contended that the said notification of the NA speaker was not available at the time of filing.
Zafar stated in the petition that now the said notification had been obtained and has been placed in the file accordingly, adding that since the de-notification of the ECP has been suspended by this court, the speaker’s notification (through which the resignations were accepted) is liable to be suspended so that the petitioners may be able to join the NA.
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