Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended the de-notification order of 43 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
On January 25, the ECP de-notified 43 PTI MNAs, just a day after Speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, had accepted the resignations of the 43 lawmakers, taking the total number of de-notified PTI lawmakers to more than 120.
After this, the de-notified lawmakers, including Riaz Fatyana, approached the LHC against the acceptance of their resignations.
During the proceedings, PTI lawyer Ali Zafar contended that PTI MNAs had withdrawn their resignation before the NA speaker had accepted them.
“Once the resignations are retracted, the speaker has no power to accept them […] This shows that the acceptance of the resignations is against the law and based on malice,” he argued.
After the case proceedings, the LHC suspended the de-notification order. It also stayed by-elections on the 43 constituencies of the de-notified MNAs till further notice. It also issued a notice to the Election Commission and other parties, seeking their replies.
