Notification of resignations suspended: possible return of PTI members to the assembly?

The Islamabad High Court on Saturday suspended the Election Commission's notification regarding the acceptance of the resignations of 11 members of the National Assembly of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, thereby canceling the by-election postponed on these vacancies and returning the PTI members to Parliament. The path has been paved. Earlier on Thursday, the Election Commission had suddenly announced the postponement of the elections in these seats and blamed the damage caused by the floods. On Saturday, Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Athar Minullah issued a written order on PTI MNA Shakur Shad's petition against acceptance of his resignation, stating that the resignations were on July 28 and 29. Both the notifications issued for the approval and de-notification of the members of the assembly will remain suspended until the next hearing. In a detailed decision on the petition of PTI Member of National Assembly Abdul Shakur Shad, the court issued notice to all the parties including the Election Commission, and fixed September 27 for the next hearing.

PTI member's U-turn on resignations

In April this year, after the success of the no-confidence motion against PTI Chairman and then Prime Minister Imran Khan, Tehreek-e-Insaf announced the collective resignation of its members in the first session of the Assembly. After that, Tehreek-e-Insaf's Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri accepted the resignations of 123 members on April 14, but the current Speaker Pervez Ashraf called this process illegal and incomplete and said that all the members should be appointed individually. As such, they will have to appear before them for confirmation of resignations.

He had also issued notices for this, but no member appeared before him.

However, on July 28, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11 members and sent them to the Election Commission, which issued a notification accepting the resignations the next day and also issued a schedule for the by-elections in these constituencies.

However, last week, PTI member Shakur Shad took a U-turn from his resignation and filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court that his resignation was only given to the party to show solidarity with Imran Khan. did not appear and sign so they should be allowed to participate in the assembly proceedings, on which the Islamabad High Court on Friday accepted their request and in a short order allowed them to participate in the proceedings of the National Assembly. It should be noted that the resignations of Tehreek-e-Insaf National Assembly members Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, and Fakhr Zaman Khan were accepted. Apart from this, the resignations of Ijaz Ahmad Shah, Jameel Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakur Shad, Farrukh Habib, Shireen Mazari, and Shandana Gulzar were also accepted.

"According to the petitioner's counsel, his client never intended to resign," the written order added.

It should be noted that by-elections were announced for these constituencies on September 25, but the Election Commission postponed these elections in view of the flood situation. Political pundits believe that by suspending all the resignations of Tehreek-e-Insaf, the by-elections will now be finally canceled and hope has arisen that Tehreek-e-Insaf will participate again in the proceedings of the National Assembly for a short period of time. However, in this regard, party leaders have said many times that they will not be a part of the proceedings of the Assembly. Even if this happens, the return of the resignations will give an atmosphere of political stability to some extent.