PESHAWAR, Sept 11: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday suspended a show cause notice issued to Pakistan Muslim League (likeminded group) MNA Hamayun Saifullah Khan by PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain for not voting for Raja Pervez Ashraf during the prime minister’s election in the House.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser admitted to full hearing a writ petition filed by Mr Saifullah against the issuance of the show cause notice to him by Mr Hussain under Article 63 of the Constitution, dealing with defection of a member.

It put on notice Mr Hussain asking him to clarify his position on the matter.

Mr Saifullah was elected MNA from NA-27 Lakki Marwat constituency on the ticket of PML-Q during the 2008 elections. Later, some PML-Q MNAs developed differences with the party leadership and formed their own faction, likeminded group.

Mr Hussain issued separate show cause notices to five MNAs of the likeminded group in Aug asking them to explain why they had violated the party’s discipline during the election of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. The said lawmakers had abstained from voting on June 22, 2012.

Jehanzeb Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said the notice issued to the petitioner by Mr Hussain was unconstitutional and illegal as he had no authority to issue such a notice.

He said Article 63-A of the Constitution dealing with defection of a lawmaker was amended through the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010.

The lawyer said prior to the amendment, the said Article 63A had empowered the head of the parliamentary party to issue a show cause notice to a member in case a question of his or her defection arose and only he was empowered to declare that a member had defected.

He said by the Constitution (Eighteenth amendment) Act, the said section was amended and the head of parliamentary party was replaced with head of the party.

The lawyer pointed out that Sub-Article 8 of Article 63A clearly mentioned that the amended Section 63-A would be applicable from next general elections.

He added that currently, the un-amended Section 63-A was applicable and as Mr Hussain was not the head of the parliamentary party and therefore, he had no authority to issue show cause notice to the members.

He said the petitioner could not attend the session of the National Assembly wherein the election for the prime minister was held due to illness of his mother and thus, there was no justification for issuance of show cause notice to him.