ISLAMABAD, Oct 7(ABC): Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Thursday asked PTI to inform the court about its intention of returning to Parliament in five days but stopped short of issuing an order on a petition filed by the lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted.
IHC CJ Athar Minallah remarked that the court cannot issue orders to the speaker and advised the PTI to return to the Parliament as it was the forum to resolve political matters.
The IHC CJ made the observations while hearing the petition of the PTI MNAs whose resignations were accepted by NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf and subsequently denotified by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Minallah stated that the court respects the Parliament, adding that a similar petition was also filed before as well on this matter.
“Is this the political party’s policy,” wondered the judge, while acknowledging that rest of the PTI MNAs’ resignations are yet to be accepted. People trusted the representatives and sent them to Parliament, he remarked.
“This court cannot issue orders to the speaker of the National Assembly,” remarked Justice Athar Minallah on the PTI’s petition asking the court to direct the custodian of the lower house to investigate their party’s resignations. He also observed that in the Shakoor Shad case IHC had only asked for a review.
“This is a political issue and Parliament is the place to resolve political tussles. You should hold dialogue with political parties to resolve problems,” said the IHC CJ. Do these resigned members really want to go to Parliament and resolve the people’s issue? he wondered.
“We have to see if the petitioners came with clean hands before the court or not,” remarked the judge.
At this, Barrister Ali Zafar, the counsel for the PTI lawmakers, told the court that his clients have not approached the IHC against the party policy.
However, the judge observed that the petitioners had themselves admitted that their resignations were “genuine”.
‘Resignations were conditional’
But the lawyer told the court that his clients believe that Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf did not fulfil his constitutional obligation. The resignations were given on the condition that all 123 will be accepted, he added and reminded the court that only 11 were accepted.
“We say that the resignations were conditional. If all the members’ resignations were not accepted then the condition was not met,” said Zafar. He also added that the resignations were not accepted without a proper inquiry, sharing that the current number of resignations laying before the speaker was 112.
At this, Justice Minallah observed that the MNAs whose resignations were pending should return to Parliament then. It is their responsibility to represent people in Parliament, he added.