Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed PTI’s petition against phase-wise acceptance of the National Assembly (MNA) members’ resignation.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case filed by the PTI challenging the acceptance of resignations of 11 MNAs and not accepting a “piece-meal” resignation of all 123 lawmakers.
The court also declared former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling to acceptance the PTI lawmakers’ resignations null and void.
CJ Minallah also rejected PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry’s plea to take up the case with a larger bench.
PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar — on behalf of his party — had filed a plea in the IHC on August 1 after the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 11 MNAs.
In the petition, the PTI leader demanded that all 123 MNAs should be de-notified together and their seats are declared vacant.
The PTI leader also alleged that the commission had itself “become a political party, which is unacceptable to us”.
Earlier, talking to media outside the IHC, Asad Umar said that his party approached the court against acceptance of the resignations of 11 MNAs.
“On April 11, 125 of our people resigned on the floor of the assembly, and on April 13, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri accepted the resignation,” Umar said.
The ECP denotified 11 PTI MNAs following the approval of their resignations by NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
