LAHORE:A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Thursday allowed 18 suspended Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPAs to attend Punjab Assembly (PA) session to be held for taking up “No Confidence Motion” against Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, PA Speaker Sibtain Khan and PA Deputy Speaker Wasiq Qayyum.
The bench, comprising Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and Justice Rasaal Hasan Syed, passed the orders on a civil miscellaneous application filed the PML-N MPAs, including Rana Mashhood, in a pending matter.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the bench had allowed the suspended MPAs to attend the PA session, on Dec 21, summoned by the governor requiring Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi to obtain vote of confidence, as an interim relief. He requested the court to allow his clients to attend the PA session to be held on Dec 23 for taking up no-confidence motion against Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, PA Speaker Sibtain Khan and PA Deputy Speaker Wasiq Qayyum, besides participation in the election of new chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker.
The court, after hearing the arguments, allowed the application and permitted the suspended MPAs to attend the session to be held for taking up the no-confidence motion and cast their votes.
The PML-N MPAs, through their petitions, had challenged the ban on attending the assembly proceedings for 15 consecutive sittings by the speaker Punjab Assembly. They submitted that the ban was a violation of assembly rules and unconstitutional.
On October 23, Speaker Punjab Assembly Muhammad Sibtain Khan barred the 18 PML-N lawmakers from attending 15 consecutive sittings of the house.