Peshawar:
The provincial Supreme Court of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has stopped the upper and lower parliamentary houses in appointing new leaders of resistance in view of the conviction, the de-seating and the de-notification of the previous-PPTI’s Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub.
A division bench from Peshawar High Court (PHC), which consists of justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr. Khurshid Iqbal, issued this order on Tuesday, while hearing petitions filed on behalf of Shibli and Omar by PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Faisalabad on July 31 July sentenced a hundred PTI leaders and workers, including Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub in a case 9 May 2023, judging them to ten years in prison.
The Election Commission in Pakistan, which took the Suo Motu warning about the conviction, disqualified the PTI leaders on August 5th. Later on August 7, the National Assembly’s speeches, Ayaz Sadiq, also issued a review that de-notifying Omar and declared the seat vacant.
The Senate Secretariat on August 8 also issued a notification in which he stated that Faraz’s disqualification on August 5 had resulted in the loss of both his Senate membership and his attitude as opposition leader in the upper house. PTI challenged these messages.
By performing on PHC on Tuesday, Barrister Gohar said they had filed separate petitions against de-notification of opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate.
He argued that the opposition leader is a constitutional post elected under Assembly Rule 39. He said that when a member is elected to the National Assembly, the ECP ends.
He referred to a Supreme Court order that the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a speaking referral. He called May 9 an unfortunate incident that should not have happened.
The PTI chairman previously said ECP also disqualified PTI’s Abdul Latif from NA-1 chitral by incorrectly referring to the Azhar Siddique case. “We won 180 seats, entered parliament with 90, and now there are only 77 left. We are proud of Omar Ayub, who received the votes of 30 million people,” he added.
He claimed that the government now wants to bring an opposition leader from another party.
“Without a speaker’s reference disqualified the ECP PTI leaders. The court should order no further actions,” he said.
After the end of arguments, Justice Ali said the court gives a residence order at PTI’s request. The bench later stopped the appointment of new opposition leaders in both the National Assembly and the Senate. It also issued messages to ECP and other respondents seeking a response before August 15.
In his written order, the Court stated that no appointment of a new leader of the opposition in the National Assembly should be made until the next consultation.
It said the petitioner quoted Muhammad Azhar Siddique vs. Federation case, where the Supreme Court found that the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a speaker’s reference.
The petitioner also claimed that the ECP interpreted the SC decision and that the appointment of an opposition leader from another party would be against parliamentary norms as their party still has the largest number of opposition members, it added.
In his written order, PHC issued messages to the respondents to appear on August 20 and ordered that no further actions will be taken on the 7th of August notification until then.
