The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has declared unconstitutional former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri’s acceptance of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs resignations, a private TV channel reported. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah also rejected a plea by PTI counsel Faisal Chaudhry to process the case before a larger bench for hearing. The court was hearing a petition filed by the PTI against the present National Assembly (NA) speaker’s decision to “phase-wise” accept the resignations of PTI’s MNAs. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that “our decision on the matter already exists; we had ruled that we will not intervene in political matters”, while adding that only the NA speaker could settle the issue. “The courts cannot do anything,” he observed. Advocate Faisal Chaudhry in response accepted that the court has “never interfered in parliamentary affairs” and added that “we also respect the Parliament but it cannot be that they accept resignations in phases”. “If they are to accept them, then they must accept all 123 resignations at once,” he said. However, the court observed that “at the time 34 members had resigned”, but the PTI lawyer said that Suri at the time was serving as the acting speaker when he accepted the 123 resignations and “not a single member challenged it”. CJ Minallah nonetheless held that the court “will not give instructions to the speaker”. He also observed that Speaker Ashraf had called “each member and accepted their resignations. Deputy Speaker [Suri] did not follow the rules of accepting resignations. He should have called every member and asked them separately”. The IHC judge also told the PTI lawyer to take the party’s request to the NA Speaker.
“He is a minority Speaker, we don’t go to him,” the advocate responded, upon this the court said that, “You need to change your mindset and respect the Parliament”. “Surely, the Speaker would have accepted the 11 resignations after satisfying any doubts. This confidence of the Speaker cannot be challenged in court,” the judge added. “Send any member to the Speaker, there should be no hesitation in that,” CJ Minallah continued. “We have reservations, that is why we have come to court,” retorted Faisal Chaudhry. “The deputy speaker could not have accepted the resignations collectively, contrary to the Constitution and the court’s decision. It is an admitted fact that the deputy speaker did not approve the en masse resignations in the prescribed manner,” the CJ remarked. “Everyone is bound before the Constitution and law,” he added as he told the PTI counsel that each resigning member should appear before the speaker individually and confirm their resignation.
The PTI lawyer still pleaded that the then deputy speaker had accepted the party members’ resignations on which the court remarked that Suri’s notification was unconstitutional. However, dismissing the PTI’s petition, CJ Minallah reminded the lawyer that elections were an expensive endeavor. “It is not good to resign whenever you feel like it and then go on and contest elections,” the IHC CJ stated.
