ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) said Friday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-(PTI) Insaf’s mass resignations have become suspect when a lawmaker from the party said he did not resign from his National Assembly position.
Abdul Shakoor Shad, a PTI MNA, disputed his resignation before the IHC, claiming that he had shown solidarity with the 123 MNAs who had resigned, but he had never resigned.
Following former deputy speaker Qasim Suri’s resignation of 123 PTI legislators, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-notified 11 PTI MNAs, including Shad.
Shad’s case was heard by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah. The justice ordered him to continue functioning as a legislator and overturned the ECP notification that had de-notified him.
On April 11, two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was removed as Prime Minister by a no-confidence resolution moved by the then-opposition, the PTI MNAs resigned en masse.
Suri, who was serving as the temporary NA speaker after Asad Qaiser resigned, had accepted all of the resignations on April 15.
However, once Raja Pervez Ashraf was selected as speaker, he decided to verify all MNA resignations by interviewing each one individually.
The move was made in response to claims that some resignations submitted by MPs were typed rather than handwritten, which is against NA norms.
‘Solidarity, not resignation,’ they say.
Shad’s lawyer told the IHC that his client’s party wanted to display “solidarity” with the other lawmakers who had resigned.
“However, the resignation was entered by a computer operator of the party and does not include a date or an address,” he informed the court.
Shad, according to the lawyer, was also present during the legislative hearings. His attendance records for the month of July are also present, according to the counsel.
“Was he ever called for a confirmation of his resignation?” the IHC asked, to which the lawyer said that Shad was asked to come in once but was unable to do so due to illness.
“However, he did participate in the sittings of the standing committees after that,” the lawyer stated.
Following the arguments, the court ordered Shad to continue serving as a legislator. IHC CJ Minallah then sent notices to the ECP and the NA Secretariat, requesting responses within two weeks.