ISLAMABAD: September 6, 2022: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday rejected a Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaf (PTI) appeal on its members resignations from the national assembly and ruled that it can not give any order to the speaker regarding procedure of acceptance of resignations. The court also rejected an application filed against PTI chairman, Imran Khan, for contesting upcoming by-elections from 9 constituencies.
An IHC bench led by chief justice, Athar Minallah, heard the case filed by PTI against acceptance of resignation of its member national assembly in phases. PTI counsel, Faisal Chaudhary, submitted before the bench that its 123 members national assembly submitted resignations en-block which were also acceptance by deputy speaker , Qasim Suri, but the speaker reopened the case and followed a segregated approach to accept resignations of PTI members in phases. He argued that the speakers pickup 11 out of 123 resignations of PTI members which was against the spirit of the law.
Responding to PTI counsel’s views, chief justice observed that deputy speaker, Qasim Suri, deviated from the legal course to accept resignations of PTI members and hence his order stands ultra constitutional and illegal. He further observed that this court had already decided a case for procedure to be followed for acceptance of the resignations of members national assembly.
PTI had submitted resignations of its members in protest from national assembly against voting out of Imran Khan through a no confidence motion. Its deputy speaker had also declared to accept the resignations of PTI members national assembly hours before his unconstitutional ruling to dissolve the national assembly .
After Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) ruling wherein Qasim Suri’s action was declared unconstitutional , the incumbent speaker national assembly had reopened the case of resignations of PTI members and decided to give personal hearing to all those members of PTI who had submitted resignations. In this process, resignations of 11 members national assembly has been accepted so far. The case of the rest is yet to the ascertained by the speakers on the basis of personal hearing in each case. PTI had moved IHC against the speaker’s decision of accepting PTI members resignations in phases.
Hearing arguments of Irfan Qadir, counsel of the government, on Imran Khan’s decision to contest by –elections from 9 constituencies himself , IHC chief justice enquired from the counsel if he knows how much public funds are spent on elections. He observed that resigning as member parliament and again contest election is like a joke.
The bench also rejected a plea filed against Imran Khan for filing nomination papers to contest by-elections in 9 constituencies.
