PESHAWAR: Three former MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court against the April 30 by-elections in three National Assembly constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In a joint petition, former lawmakers Ali Mohammad Khan of NA-22 Mardan, Fazal Mohammad Khan of NA-24 Charsadda and Shaukat Ali of MNA-31 Peshawar requested the court to declare unconstitutional the holding of by-polls in their respective constituencies saying the term of the National Assembly will expire on Aug 14, so polling can’t be held 120 days before that.

The petitioners contended that Article 224(4) of the Constitution declared that if a general seat of the National Assembly fell vacant not later than 120 days before the term of that assembly was expired, it should not be filled.

The petition is filed through Barrister Gohar Khan, who also sought an interim relief in the form of a stay order against the ongoing electoral process.

Petition also filed by PTI’s 10 ex-MNAs against acceptance of resignations

The petitioners said the three

NA seats- NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda and NA-31 Peshawar, were declared vacant along with three other seats of National Assembly from Punjab by the ECP through a notification on Feb 24.

The six seats along with a seventh from NA- 45 Kurram were won by former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan during by-polls in Oct 2022.

However, as under the Constitution, Mr Khan can only retain one NA seat, the ECP issued the notification through which Mr Khan was de-notified for the six other seats.

The three seats in question were earlier declared vacant after resignations of the petitioners were accepted by the NA speaker leading to by-polls on Oct 16, 2022.

The petitioners contended that holding of those by-polls were not only a violation of Article 224(4) of the Constitution but the election of MNAs for such a short period was a waste of taxpayers’ money as well.

CHALLENGED: The PTI’s 10 more former MNAs on Tuesday moved the Peshawar High Court against the acceptance of their resignations by the National Assembly speaker and their de-notification by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The former lawmakers, including six women elected on reserved seats in the 2018 general elections, filed a joint petition requesting the court to set aside the notifications issued by the speaker and the ECP on Jan 22 and Jan 25, respectively, by declaring them unlawful and of no legal effect.

The petitioners include Anwar Taj of NA-23 Charsadda, Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh of NA-39 DI Khan, Gul Zafar Khan of NA-41 Bajaur, Jawad Hussain of NA-47 Orakzai and six former women MNAs Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Sajida Begum, Noreen Farooq Khan, Uzma Riaz, Zille Huma and Shaheen Naz Saifullah.

They requested the court to declare that the acceptance of their resignations by the speaker was a violation of the law settled by the Supreme Court in earlier judgements, so it was unlawful and illegal.

Two identical petitions of 24 former MNAs of PTI, whose resignations were accepted by the NA speaker on Jan 17 and Jan 20, have been pending with the high court, which will take them up today (Wednesday).

The petitioners claimed that without fulfilling the legal requirements, the NA speaker unlawfully accepted resignations of 35 MNAs and issued a notification for it on Jan 17,and accepted resignations of 35 other MNAs on Jan 20 and43 others, including petitioners onJan 25.

They contended that under Article 64 of the Constitution, the speaker while receiving the resignation of a member had a duty to ascertain personally whether it was signed by the person resigning, whether it was voluntary and whether it was intended to act as a resignation.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2023