LHC sets aside de-notification of at least 53 PTI MNAs

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday set aside National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s decision to accept the resignations of at least 53 PTI lawmakers and the subsequent de-notifications orders issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The court order was pronounced by Justice Shahid Karim on pleas filed by 72 PTI members — notably including Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mahmood and Riaz Fatyana — with him directing the petitioners to appear before the NA speaker for the withdrawal of their notifications.

The judge further issued directives for the speaker to hear out the relevant PTI members again and then take a decision regarding their resignations.

The ruling, a written order of which is awaited, comes more than a year after the PTI lawmakers’ en masse resignations from the NA, following the ouster of party chief Imran Khan as the premier in April last year.

Their resignations were accepted by the NA speaker in a piecemeal manner while they continued to file multiple petitions against the speaker’s decision.

Initially, the NA Speaker accepted the resignations of only 11 PTI lawmakers on July 28, 2022.

Ashraf told a PTI delegation on Dec 29, 2022, that the party’s lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification of their resignations as the latter insisted on them being accepted in one go.

But after stalling the process for eight months, the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs on Jan 17 and 35 MNAs on Jan 20, including Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, as the party hinted it would “test” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a confidence vote.

On Jan 24, 43 PTI MNAs had written to the NA speakers withdrawing their resignations. However, the speaker had already accepted the resignations by then. Subsequently, on Jan 25, the ECP de-notified 43 more PTI lawmakers, taking the total number to 123.