Speaker says yet to receive court order: PTI MNAs do not attend lower house session

ISLAMABAD: The 43 MNAs of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who got relief from the Lahore High Court (LHC) that suspended the notification of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-seating them, will have to wait till the next session to return to the House, which was prorogued on Thursday.

The proceedings of the National Assembly ended within minutes due to a lack of quorum on Thursday morning and the PTI members could not materialise their plan to return to the House. Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of Jamaat-e-Islami, while objecting to the absence of federal ministers, pointed out the lack of quorum at the outset.

“For what use you have recruited ministers in large numbers as none of them is present in the House,” Maulana Chitrali said on a point of order, adding that five to seven more people had been inducted into the cabinet recently.

Earlier, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali said there was a thin presence of members in the House. “In this situation, you cannot continue proceedings and carry out legislation,” the JI lawmaker said.

PTI member Nusrat Wahid reportedly said that it would be the best policy to wait for the written order of the LHC before going to the Parliament House.

Apparently, the PTI lawmakers, as per directives from the party leadership, are aiming to snatch the position of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Raja Riaz Ahmad. He would lose support of majority of opposition members with their return to the House.

JUIF members Jamaluddin, Salahuddin Ayubi and Aliya Kamran were prepared to introduce a bill titled the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2023 to amend the controversial Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) (Amendment Bill) which along with other bills existed on the order of the day.

Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Raja Parvaiz Ashraf in a video message said that so far the National Assembly Secretariat had not received any written orders from the LHC. “Neither we have received the order nor we know its details,” he added.

The speaker said he was also consulting legal experts, and after that any decision on the return of PTI members to the House would be taken.

He also pointed that he had also learnt that the National Assembly Secretariat was also made a party to the case but it did not receive any notice.

The sources said that majority of 43 members, who were present in Islamabad, had planned to visit the Parliament House but changed their plan following the speaker’s video statement.