Peshawar:
The Provincial Superior Court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has prevented the upper and lower chambers of Parliament from appointing new opposition leaders in view of the conviction, discouragement and disappointment of the previous ones: Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub of PTI.
A Division Bank of the Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) comprised of Judge Syed Arshad Ali and Judge Dr. Khurshid Iqbal issued this order on Tuesday while listening to requests presented on behalf of Shibli and Omar by the president of PTI, the Barríster Gohar Ali Khan.
An anti -terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad on July 31 condemned one hundred leaders and workers of PTI, including Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub in a case of May 9, 2023, sentencing them to ten years in prison.
The Pakistan Electoral Commission, which received a warning of Suo Motu from the conviction, disqualified PTI leaders on August 5. Later, on August 7, the president of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, also issued a notification of Omar’s notification and declared the vacancy.
On August 8, the Senate Secretariat also issued a notification, stating that Faraz’s disqualification on August 5 had resulted in the loss of their membership in the Senate and its position as opposition leader in the Upper House. The PTI challenged these notifications.
Appearing in the PHC on Tuesday, the lawyer Gohar said they had presented separate requests against the dissemination of the opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate.
He argued that the opposition leader is a constitutional position, elected under rule 39 of the Assembly. He said that once a member is chosen for the National Assembly, the role of ECP ends.
He referred to a ruling from the Supreme Court that indicates that the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a reference from a speaker. He called on May 9 an unfortunate incident that should not have happened.
The president of PTI said previously that the ECP also disqualified Abdul Latif de Na-1 chitral erroneously citing the Azhar Siddique case. “We won 180 seats, we entered Parliament with 90, and now there are only 77. 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 of another party.
“Without reference from a speaker, the ECP disqualified PTI leaders. The court must order that no more measures are taken,” he said.
After the conclusion of the arguments, Judge Ali said that the court is granting an order of suspension at the request of the PTI. Later, the Bank arrested the appointment of new opposition leaders both in the National Assembly and in the Senate. He also issued NCPs and other respondents, looking for an answer before August 15.
In his written order, the court declared that a new opposition leader in the National Assembly until the next hearing should not be appointed.
He said the petitioner cited the case of Muhammad Azhar Siddique vs Federation, where the Supreme Court said the ECP cannot disqualify a member without a reference from a speaker.
The petitioner also said that the ECP Malinter pretended the decision of SC and that appointing an opposition leader of another party would be against parliamentary norms, since his party still has the largest number of opposition members, he added.
The PHC, in his written order, issued notices to the respondents who appeared on August 20 and ordered that no more measures be taken on the notification of August 7 until then.
