Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders on Wednesday appealed to the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice to fix their petitions against the suspension of the party MPAs for hearing.
Talking to the media, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Attaullah Tarar said: “We came to the Lahore High Court (LHC) with a plea for early hearing of our two pending petitions.” An application was being filed for early hearing of the petition against suspension of 18 MPAs, he said, adding that the election of the Punjab Assembly speaker had also been challenged.
He said that the LHC was an institution which was beyond any influence. It was expected that the party would get justice as per law and constitution, he added. He said that there was an issue of the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, adding that no member could be deprived of his/her right to vote.
PML-N Punjab Spokesperson Azma Bukhari said that the Punjab Assembly members also had fundamental rights, adding that it was their right to perform in the assembly and point out wrongdoings of the government. She said that all assemblies, including the National Assembly, had powers to expel a member for up to15 days. She said that the powers were being misused in the Punjab Assembly for political reasons.
She appealed to the LHC chief justice to play his role in the protection of fundamental rights of the members and fix the petitions against the suspension of the members for hearing. “If the speaker is using rules for political purposes, then it is a responsibility of the judiciary to look into the matter,” she added.
She went on to say that the election of the speaker was illegal, as he had been elected in violation of the secret ballot rule. “And now the same person (speaker) is expelling the PML-N members from the assembly on one pretext or the other,” she complained.
Azma Bukhari said that through a fraudulent method, the speaker had converted the suspension of a member from 15 days into 15 sittings, which might end after two months, or two-and-a-half months.
She appealed to the LHC chief justice to fix the petitions for hearing as it was a case of urgent nature, adding that attempts were being made to end mandate of 120 million people of the province by dissolving the Punjab Assembly. “It is our right to stop dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, but we should be allowed to go into the assembly for that purpose,” she added.
