PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday issued a stay order and stopped the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding by-elections in 24 National Assembly constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where polling was scheduled for March 16 and 19.

A bench comprising Justice Syed M. Attique Shah and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued the order after a preliminary hearing of two identical petitions filed by PTI’s 24 former MNAs from KP against the acceptance of their resignations by the National Assembly speaker and their subsequent de-notification by the electoral watchdog.

The former lawmakers have requested the court to set aside four notifications issued by the National Assembly speaker and the ECP on the matter.

The petitioners requested the court to declare the speaker’s act of accepting their resignations a violation of the law in line with Supreme Court judgements.

Former PTI lawmakers ask PHC to declare resignations’ acceptance illegal

Barrister Gohar Khan appeared for the petitioners whereas Advocate Mohsin Kamran represented the ECP. Deputy Attorney General for Pakistan Sanaullah Khan appeared for the federal government and the speaker.

One of the petitions was filed by eight former MNAs, whose resignations were accepted by the speaker on Jan 17 and the ECP de-notified them the same day.

These petitioners include former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser; six former federal ministers including Pervez Khattak, Murad Saeed, Omar Ayub Khan, Ali Amin Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri and Sheharyar Afridi; and former MNA Imran Khattak.

The other petition was jointly filed by 16 former MNAs whose resignations were accepted by the speaker on Jan 20 and the ECP had de-notified them through a notification the same day. Barrister Gohar said the resignation letters were obtained by the PTI from its 123 National Assembly members, including the present petitioners.

He argued that PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote a letter to the National Assembly speaker on Dec 15, asking him to accept all resignations en masse, but the latter said in his Dec 22 reply that he would instead invite MNAs in his chamber individually to verify their resignations.

The lawyer contended that contrary to that communication, the speaker never called them for that verification.

Subsequently, he said a delegation of PTI headed by the petitioner Asad Qaiser met the speaker on Dec 29 and was told that individual verification was a legal requirement and, therefore, all MNAs should be called individually to confirm their resignations.

He pointed out that when the PTI announced the return of its MNAs to the house and demanded the office of the leader of the opposition, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and others, the speaker “unlawfully” accepted the resignations of 35 MNAs and issued a notification on Jan 17, while resignations of 35 other MNAs were accepted on Jan 20.

When the bench inquired from Barrister Gohar whether the petitioners had approached the speaker for withdrawing their resignations, the counsel said PTI chief Imran Khan had announced that they had been returning to the assembly.

The bench wondered whether they were playing with the parliament, that if the resignations were approved, it was fine, or else they would go back.

Barrister Gohar said the move to tender resignations was meant to force rulers into calling general elections in the country.

He argued that the petitioners had never appeared before the speaker and therefore, their resignations should not have been accepted.

He contended that Islamabad and Lahore high courts had already suspended the by-elections process in their respective jurisdictions.

Mr Sanaullah, the deputy attorney general, argued that these petitioners had neither visited the parliament during the last 11 months nor approached the speaker to withdraw their resignations.

He argued that when by-elections were scheduled for March 16 and 19, the petitioners could not approach the court to stop the polls at such a belated stage.

When the bench inquired from Mr Sanaullah that being a law officer of the federation, why he had been appearing for the speaker, he said that as all arrangements were finalised and funds were provided by the government for that purpose, therefore, he appeared in the matter.

He pointed out that all these petitioners were also candidates in the by-elections.

Advocate Mohsin Kamran also contended that the ECP had finalised all arrangements for the by-polls and that the polling process might not be suspended at this stage.

The court set the next hearing for March 7.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2023