The Lahore High Court (LHC) halted by-elections in 43 constituencies and suspended National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s acceptance of the resignations of 43 PTI lawmakers.
Justice Shahid Karim issued the ruling in response to a petition filed by PTI’s Riaz Fatyana and 42 other MNAs challenging the acceptance of their resignations by the NA speaker and the de-notification orders issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Following the speaker’s acceptance of resignations, the ECP de-notified 123 MNAs (including those with reserved seats).
PTI lawyer Ali Zafar argued at the hearing today that PTI MNAs had retracted their resignation before the NA speaker had accepted it.
He claimed that accepting the resignations was illegal and motivated by malice because the speaker had no authority to do so after the resignations were retracted.
Zafar added that Ashraf had only accepted the resignation to exact “political vengeance” and that the NA speaker’s order violated Supreme Court regulations.
He emphasized that “he never called PTI MNAs and asked them their stance,” and he asked the court to declare the speaker’s order void.
The court then put Ashraf’s judgment and the ECP’s de-notification order on hold. The federal government and the electoral body were also notified by Justice Karim, who asked them to respond to the case at the subsequent hearing.
The petition claimed that PTI lawmakers had asked the speaker to accept their resignations “without following due process” even though they had withdrawn their resignation notices.
En masse resignations, it was argued, couldn’t be regarded as resignations because they weren’t voluntary but rather based on political considerations to force early elections.
All petitioners were reportedly asked to return to parliament, and the speaker never refuted this claim.
However, it added that the petitioners’ resignations were “illegally” accepted by the speaker for political reasons when they decided to return to the assembly and withdraw them.
The speaker and the Election Commission were accused in the petition of acting “on the orders of high-ups” rather than following the law.
It also stated that the speaker did not personally invite the lawmakers to confirm their resignations before accepting them.
 halted by-elections in 43 constituencies and suspended National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's acceptance of the resignations of 43 PTI MNAs.){kind=link}