Peshawar:
The Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) issued a suspension order on Tuesday, stopping the appointment of new opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate after the disqualification of Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz de PTI.
The Court issued notices to the president of the National Assembly, the president of the Senate and other relevant officials, which ordered them to submit answers before August 15.
On August 5, the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP) had disqualified Ayub and Faraz, along with other AMN and Opposition MPA, after its convictions in three cases related to the disturbances of May 9, 2023.
Subsequently, on August 8, both leaders were withdrawn from their positions through notifications issued by the NA and the Secretariats of the Senate.
A bank of two members comprising Judge Syed Arshad Ali and Judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal listened to requests presented by both leaders against their dissemination by the Pakistan Electoral Commission (ECP).
Read: ECP disqualifies three PTI legislators after the ATC verdict in the case of May 9
During the hearing, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, who represents the petitioners, argued that the ECP had disqualified the two leaders without receiving a reference from the president or president of the Senate, qualifying it as constitutional extralimitation.
“The ECP acted without authority, until the speaker sends a reference, he has no power to disqualify a member,” he said.
He argued that opposition leadership is a constitutional position and, under the rules of the Assembly, cannot be eliminated through unilateral action by the ECP.
Gohar referred to a ruling from the previous Supreme Court to argue that once a candidate becomes an elected member, the ECP jurisdiction ends.
In statements to the media outside the court, the lawyer Gohar said that the current wave of disqualifications and punishments would not solve political problems.
“Everyone may have made mistakes, but the solution lies in the dialogue, not in disqualification,” he said. “If the largest game in the country is off, it raises serious risks to democracy.”
Gohaha also highlighted what he called PTI discriminatory treatment, stating that the ECP accepted the intraparticle elections of other parties, but rejected the PTI, although they were carried out in a more transparent way.
In addition, he said that PTI, after having won 180 seats in the elections of February 8, had now been reduced to 76 seats in the assembly, claiming political victimization.
The case will be resumed again on August 15.
ATC sentences
On July 31, an anti -terrorism court in Faisalabad sentenced more than 100 leaders and workers of PTI to prison terms of up to 10 years in relation to the disturbances of May 9.
Among those who were given rigorous imprisonment were greater opposition figures, including Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, Sartaj Gul and the head of the Sunita Ittehad Council, Hamid Raza.
Then, Ismael Khan was sentenced to a life imprisonment and an order to lose all his property was approved.
