ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) today declared unlawful resignations of PTI MNAs accepted by deputy speaker Qasim Suri.
Islamabad High Court ruled this on the petition of PTI challenging the decision of the current Speaker of National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf about the phase-wise approval of the resignations. Just before no-confidence against Imran Khan on April 9, deputy speaker Qasim Suri accepted resignations of 123 PTI MNAs.
Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, however, decided to approve the resignations after verification from the PTI MNAs, as required in the law.
The PTI had challenged NA speaker’s decision before the Islamabad High Court, but the court turned it down on Tuesday.
The court also rejected the PTI’s plea to form a larger bench on the issue. The IHC ruled that a notification issued following Suri’s order was against the constitution.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah told the PTI counsel that the party’s MNAs should ask the NA speaker to approve their resignations according to a 2015 IHC ruling on the procedure to approve resignations.
When the counsel said that the PTI did not consider Ashraf as the NA speaker because, the party believed, he was elected by a minority, the chief justice said that the PTI people should change their mindset and respect the Parliament.
Justice Minallah also said that the court cannot interfere with the affairs of Parliament.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry announced that he will challenge the court verdict.
Advocate Irfan Qadir, meanwhile, said that the NA speaker holds a constitutional position above the chief justice of Pakistan and that the court has elaborated on this point.
It is the NA speaker’s prerogative to determine if an MNA has resigned from his seat on not, said Qadir.
The speaker will now continue the process and verify the resignations, he said.
