ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court reiterated its recommendation that the PTI return and join the National Assembly since the people had chosen their MPs for a five-year period.
The top court’s recommendation came during a hearing of PTI’s appeal against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to dismiss its appeal of the party’s MNAs’ resignations being accepted piecemeal.
The party was instructed to return to parliament and participate in the NA by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who presided over the two-member bench that also included Justice Ayesha Malik. The court postponed the proceedings indefinitely after hearing the arguments.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP(PTI) )’s decision to accept the resignations of 11 MNAs but reject a “piece-meal” resignation from all 123 members was initially contested by the PTI in a motion to the IHC. But on September 6, the IHC rejected the plea.
Two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was dismissed as prime minister in response to a no-confidence resolution put forth by the then-opposition, all PTI MNAs abruptly resigned on April 11.
On April 15, Suri accepted every resignation after Asad Qaiser resigned as the NA’s temporary speaker. But after Raja Pervez Ashraf was chosen as speaker, he decided to call each MNA individually to confirm their resignations.
The choice was taken as a result of learning that some resignation letters sent by MPs were typewritten, which was against NA standards.
The hearing today:
The highest court stated during the hearing today that the IHC had made a clear decision about the acceptance of MNA resignations in phases.
“The speaker is authorized by law to accept MNA resignations. Primarily, if the speaker’s rights are violated, Article 69 will apply “The judge stated.
