• Sets aside ECP’s de-notification, speaker’s decision to accept resignations
• Judge directs 72 lawmakers from Punjab to personally appear before speaker to withdraw resignations
• PTI chief himself won’t go to house

LAHORE: In a significant judgement, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday set aside decisions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Assembly (NA) speaker to accept the resignation of 72 PTI lawmakers from Punjab, effectively paving the way for their return to the house.

The decision was announced by Justice Shahid Karim on the petitions filed by PTI leaders Shafqat Mahmood and Riaz Ahmad Fatyana.

While reacting to the court ruling, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said party members would return to the National Assembly to raise the issues of alleged human rights violations and attempt to crush PTI but he himself would not go to the house as it has “lost its political and legislative relevance for the country”.

The judge directed the lawmakers to personally appear before the speaker to withdraw their resignations and also directed the speaker to decide the matter after personally hearing each member.

The group was among those who resigned en masse after Mr Khan was ousted from power as a result of a no-confidence motion in 2022.

Talking to the media, PTI Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar said the MNAs could now go back to the National Assembly and perform their constitutional duties.

Earlier, in his concluding arguments before the court, Mr Zafar stated that the MNAs had resigned en masse on the party’s directions only to force the government to hold fresh elections.

He added that the petitioners had in fact withdrawn their resignations on television and also informed the speaker in writing about their decision.

The lawyer argued that the speaker cannot accept the resignation of any MNA without following the constitutional procedure which has been upheld in several decisions by the Supreme Court and high courts.

He pointed out that masse resignations could not be accepted and each MNA had to submit handwritten resignation. To verify the resignations, the speaker must hear each lawmaker personally to ascertain whether their decision was voluntary or under duress.

He said the speaker had earlier assured a delegation of PTI that he would call lawmakers individually to verify the resignations.

Mr Zafar claimed that the speaker backtracked from his stated position after PTI lawmakers announced their intentions.

The coveted return

For months after the collective resignations of its lawmakers, the PTI kept claiming that the decision was to force general elections.

But over time, the party’s leadership had a change of mind as they started hinting at their return to the house. This was, in some ways, due to the fact that the masse resignations left the field open for the government, posing no real challenge to its attempt to draft and pass legislation.

In addition, the opposition leader must be consulted by the prime minister on appointments to key constitutional positions, such as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau or the chief election commissioner, and even the selection of an interim caretaker set-up.

The party also seemed to realise that the seat of the opposition leader was also too big a price to be left to a lawmaker visibly “pliant” to the government.

Moreover, the person in this position also enjoys certain privileges. For example, there is a convention that the opposition leader must be given the floor whenever they ask for it. This makes it very difficult for the government to ‘shut down’ criticism from the opposition.

After they resigned en masse, NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, in scattered moves, accepted the resignations of over 120 PTI lawmakers.

If all PTI lawmakers, whose de-notification have been suspended by the LHC decided to return, and provided that the speaker makes no attempt to thwart their participation in house proceedings, they can claim the seat of the opposition leader based on their majority.

Resignations, speaker and courts

On July 28, 2022, the speaker accepted the resignations of 11 PTI lawmakers. They were subsequently de-notified by the ECP and by-elections were held on their seats.

In two separate actions in January 2023, the speaker first accepted 34 resignations and then signed off 35 more, leading to their de-notifications by the ECP.

Interestingly, the action had come only a few days after the party announced its plan to return to the house to lay claims on the seats of the opposition leader and the Public Accounts Committee chairman— both currently held by dissident PTI lawmakers Raja Riaz and Noor Alam Khan, respectively.

On Jan 23, the remaining 45 PTI MNAs collectively withdrew their resignations, but the ECP de-notified 43 of them on Jan 25, after reports emerged of Mr Ashraf accepting the resignations.

In order to seek the reversal of the speaker and the ECP’s actions, the PTI moved all four provincial high courts and the Supreme Court.

In two separate decisions in February, the LHC suspended the ECP’s decision to de-notify around 73 PTI lawmakers from Punjab.

In a similar order on March 1, the Islamabad High Court suspended the de-notification of three PTI lawmakers — Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan and Raja Khurram Shehzad. A day later, the Balochistan High Court had stopped the ECP from holding the by-election in NA-265, Quetta, along with suspending the de-notification of former NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri.

Later, the Peshawar and Sindh high courts extended similar reliefs to PTI lawmakers from their respective provinces.

Emboldened by the courts’ decisions, the party’s lawmakers attempted to return to the NA and join its proceedings but at least two such attempts were foiled.

The speaker, Mr Ashraf, has stated on record that courts only suspended the ECP’s orders, and not touched the speaker’s decision. Therefore, within parliament — which is the domain of the speaker — these PTI members are still deemed “strangers in the house”.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2023