The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday upheld the decision of National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on resignations of 43 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.
The National Assembly Secretariat also received the detailed verdict of the LHC.
According to a statement released by the speaker’s office, it said that PTI’s propaganda of restoring seats has proved to be false and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s stance on accepting their resignations has proven to be the right decision.
The speaker’s office further said that the LHC has suspended the notification of the Election Commission to hold elections on the 35 vacant seats until the hearing has been completed.
However, NA Speaker’s decision to accept the resignations remains unaffected, hence the de-seated lawmakers cannot attend assembly proceedings as regular members.
The office furthered that Ashraf’s “stance proved correct”.
The statement reads, NA speaker not only considered the issue of resignations with great restraint, but had also repeatedly summoned the PTI MNAs.
LHC reserves verdict on polls in Punjab
The Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday reserved its verdict on a petition filed by a citizen and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seeking a date for general elections in Punjab.
The provincial apex court is expected to announce the verdict later today.
Punjab IGP Dr Usman Anwar and the chief secretary appeared before the court and assured that they will ensure compliance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decision.
During the hearing, the ECP lawyer apprised the court that the only issue before the court was who would give the date for the polls and also clarified that ECP and the president were not the parties in the case.
“The court cannot issue orders to those who are not made the party in the case,” the lawyer insisted.
PTI’s lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar said that PTI made the ECP a party to the case by amending the petition, to which, ECP counsel replied that the president was yet to be made party to the case.
