ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) asked the National Assembly speaker to review the acceptance of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Shakoor Shad’s resignation from the National Assembly seat.

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Tuesday maintained the stay against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s notification to de-seat him. The ECP declared the seat vacant after National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11 PTI MNAs including Shad.

Shad, the PTI lawmaker from Karachi’s NA-246 constituency (Lyari), challenged his resignation in the IHC, which in the last hearing had suspended the ECP’s notification for declaring NA-246 Lyari as vacant on his petition.

During the proceeding, the IHC chief justice said the voters of Shad should not be deprived of representation in the National Assembly.

Justice Minallah remarked that the NA speaker had de-seated Shad without hearing him, which was inappropriate, as he should have been heard. The National Assembly deputy secretary said that he had submitted the reply on the petition. Upon that the chief justice asked the counsel to leave the reply, and tell the Court how a constituency could be deprived of its representation, adding should they summon the Speaker? The IHC chief justice further said the constituency of 1.1 million people has been de-seated.

Shad, in a constitutional petition filed through advocate Akhtar Cheema, maintained that the resignation letter was written by a computer operator at the PTI’s head office, and was signed by 123 members. He argued that the letter did not address the Lower House speaker, and did not have a name or date on it. The petitioner has claimed that the approval of his resignation was in violation of the judgment given by Justice Minallah in 2015.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022