Lahore High Court has suspended the order accepting resignations of 43 PTI MNAs and put bye-elections in the constituencies on hold.

PTI lawmakers had approached the court regarding acceptance of their resignations. The court has issued notices to speaker of the National Assembly and the Election Commission.

The acceptance of resignations and the schedule of elections stands suspended until the proceedings are completed. The order was issued by Justice Shahid Kareem.

Spekaer Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had accepted PTI’s resignations in three segments in the month of January. The ECP has already issued schedules for bye-elections in 64 constituencies.

The petitioners were represented by Barrister Ali Zafar who argued that the PTI members had already withdrawn their resignations but the speaker decided to accept them any way, which was against the law.

He also told the court that the speaker had not completed the process required of him by law as the members whose resignations had been accepted had not been called to verify their resignations. He argued that the accepteance of resignations was politically motivated and based on ‘malintent’.

The speaker accepted 35 PTI resignations on January 18 and another 35 on January 21. At that point the PTI decided to withdraw their remaining resignations from the assembly, but the speaker decided to accept them anyway. The Election Commission has announced that elections on 33 constituencies will be held on March 16, while elections on another 31 constituencies will be held on March 19.