ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against phased acceptance of the resignations given by its members of the National Assembly (MNAs) by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday said that was purely parliament’s internal matter and the court could not interfere in it. IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Athar Minallah, in his remarks, said that the former deputy speaker Qasim Suri had accepted these resignations by going against this court’s verdict. The point to be noted, he added, was that the NA speaker had accepted the resignations of 11 PTI MNAs after he felt satisfied. “Your MNAs could have gone to the speaker’s chamber to convey their concerns to him,” he remarked while addressing PTI’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry. Speaking on the occasion, Faisal said admitted that parliament was supreme, but the NA speaker ought to have accepted the resignations of all 123 PTI MNAs rather than of just 11. CJ Minallah said there existed IHC’s detailed verdict in a similar case of Zafar Ali Shah. “And we have laid down the criterion for accepting the resignation, if any MNA gives it,” he elaborated. -NNI
