ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday moved the SupremeCourt of Pakistan against a verdict announced by the Islamabad High Court,declaring former National Assembly acting speaker Qasim Suri’s decision toaccept resignations of PTI lawmakers unconstitutional.
PTI leader Asad Umar has filed the petition, pleading the top court toreverse the incumbent Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s move to phase-wiseaccept the resignations of PTI lawmakers.
Last week, a high court bench headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallahdeclared Suri’s move unconstitutional, besides turning down a PTI plea tofix the case before a larger bench for hearing.
On April 11, all PTI MNAs resigned from the parliament en masse, two daysafter former prime minister Imran Khan was ousted from his office through ano-confidence vote by the joint opposition.
Suri, who was serving as acting speaker at that time, accepted all the 123resignation, serving a major blow to the new government.
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Later, Ashraf decided to verify the resignations by calling the PTIlawmakers in his office. Reports also emerged that NA Secretariat hadexpressed concerns over the authenticity of the resignations due tomismatched signatures of various MNAs on their resignations.
On July 27, NA speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11PTI lawmakers, including Dr Shireen Mazari, Farrukh Habib, Ali MuhammadKhan and Fakhar Zaman Khan.
