PTI MNAs resignations: Intra-court filed appeal against LHC verdict

The National Assembly (NA) Secretariat has filed an intra-court appeal against the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict for the restoration of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), ARY News reported on Saturday.

The NA secretary Tahir Hussain filed the intra-court appeal against the LHC verdict for restoring the PTI MNAs whose resignations were approved by the NA speaker.

Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar, Maleeka Bokhari, other lawmakers, NA speaker, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and federal government were made parties.

It stated that 123 PTI MNAs had tendered resignations after the successful no-trust motion. It added that the LHC single bench announced the verdict on May 19 to restore the lawmakers contrary to the law.

The NA Secretariat pleaded with the court to nullify the LHC’s verdict.

READ: Justice Athar Minallah says PTI MNAs’ resignations escalated political crisis

On June 6, the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat decided to file an intra-court appeal against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict in the PTI MNAs resignation case.

Sources said that the LHC allegedly gave two contradictory verdicts regarding the PTI MNAs’ resignations. In a short verdict, the National Assembly was ordered to conduct the interviews of the lawmakers again.

Later, the NA Speaker’s decision was rejected after the approval of the PTI MNAs resignations in the detailed verdict. The secretariat started preparations to challenge the verdict, sources said.

In May, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had overturned the resignations of 70 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNAs.

The PTI MNAs, including Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervaiz Khattak and others challenged the acceptance of their resignations as MNAs by the NA speaker.

In the petitions, the lawmakers maintained that the speaker did not listen to their viewpoints before accepting their resignations.

Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had also suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notification that de-notified 43 MNAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).