Monitoring Report
ISLAMABAD: De-seated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers on Wednesday claimed before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the speaker of the National Assembly had treated their “en masse letters” as a resignation and recommended their de-notification to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In a departure from their previous demand that their resignations be accepted forthwith, PTI leaders Dr Shireen Mazari, Ali Mohammad Khan, Farrukh Habib, Shandana Gulzar, Fazal Mohammd, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Ijaz Shah, Jameel Ahmed Khan and Mohammad Akram have moved the high court against the approval of their ‘resignations’ by the NA speaker and Election Commission of Pakistan.
PTI has already challenged the NA speaker’s decision of accepting resignations of its 10 MNAs before the Supreme Court.
On Sept 6, the IHC dismissed a petition in this regard, prompting the party to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
In their fresh plea before the high court, the PTI members argue that after the change of their government through a foreign conspiracy, the leadership took a policy decision to protest against the party’s ouster from office.
“To seek a fresh mandate from… people, the party decided to get all its elected members resigned en bloc from the National Assembly,” the petition said.
The party was of the view that the speaker was under obligation to accept the resignations of all 123 MNAs who had quit the lower house of parliament to protest the ouster of their party’s government “through a conspiracy”.
The petition filed by the 10 lawmakers on Wednesday, however, stated: “The speaker of the National Assembly vide decision dated July 28, 2022 without any due [inquiry] nor any verification from the petitioners, treated the letters from the petitioners as “resignation”, final and binding” and forwarded these to the ECP who de-notified 11 members on the next date.
