IHC rejects PTI’s plea against phased acceptance of its MNAs’ resignations

Rejecting the petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against phased acceptance of the resignations given by its members of the National Assembly (MNAs) by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday said that was purely parliament’s internal matter and the court could not interfere in it, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.   

IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Athar Minallah, in his remarks, said that the former deputy speaker Qasim Suri had accepted these resignations by going against this court’s verdict.  

The point to be noted, he added, was that the NA speaker had accepted the resignations of 11 PTI MNAs after he felt satisfied. “Your MNAs could have gone to the speaker’s chamber to convey their concerns to him,” he remarked while addressing PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry.  

Speaking on the occasion, Faisal said admitted that parliament was supreme, but the NA speaker ought to have accepted the resignations of all 123 PTI MNAs rather than of just 11. 

CJ Minallah said there existed IHC’s detailed verdict in a similar case of Zafar Ali Shah. “And we have laid down the criterion for accepting the resignation, if any MNA gives it,” he elaborated. 

“But here the situation is different since the resignations of our MNAs had been accepted by the former deputy speaker before he himself left the office prior to the takeover by the coalition government,” PTI’s lawyer reminded him.

And none of the MNAs, Faisal added, had challenged the deputy speaker’s this act. 

Irfan Qadir, counsel for the government, said that the circumstances in which the resignations were accepted should also be looked into. “The ex-deputy speaker had prevented voting on the no-trust motion, and we challenged his decision in the Supreme Court (SC),” he said, and added, “The SC ordered voting on the motion. Following that the Suri accepted these resignations in a rush.” 

Irfan went on to add that the NA speaker had learnt that there were some PTI MNAs who said that they had not given resignations of their free will. “This prompted the speaker to look into the issue,” he added.    

Reporter: Ehtesham Kiyani