LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday set aside decisions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Assembly (NA) speaker to accept the resignation of 72 PTI lawmakers from Punjab, effectively paving the way for their return to the house.

The decision was announced by Justice Shahid Karim on the petitions filed by PTI leaders Shafqat Mahmood and Riaz Ahmad Fatyana.

While reacting to the court ruling, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said party members would return to the National Assembly to raise the issues of alleged human rights violations and attempt to crush PTI but he himself would not go to the house as it has “lost its political and legislative relevance for the country”.

The judge directed the lawmakers to personally appear before the speaker to withdraw their resignations and also directed the speaker to decide the matter after personally hearing each member.

The group was among those who resigned en masse after Mr Khan was ousted from power as a result of a no-confidence motion in 2022.

Talking to the media, PTI Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar said the MNAs could now go back to the National Assembly and perform their constitutional duties.

Earlier, in his concluding arguments before the court, Mr Zafar stated that the MNAs had resigned en masse on the party’s directions only to force the government to hold fresh elections.

He added that the petitioners had in fact withdrawn their resignations on television and also informed the speaker in writing about their decision.

The lawyer argued that the speaker cannot accept the resignation of any MNA without following the constitutional procedure which has been upheld in several decisions by the Supreme Court and high courts.

He pointed out that masse resignations could not be accepted and each MNA had to submit handwritten resignation. To verify the resignations, the speaker must hear each lawmaker personally to ascertain whether their decision was voluntary or under duress.

He said the speaker had earlier assured a delegation of PTI that he would call lawmakers individually to verify the resignations.

Mr Zafar claimed that the speaker backtracked from his stated position after PTI lawmakers announced their intentions.

For months after the collective resignations of its lawmakers, the PTI kept claiming that the decision was to force general elections.

But over time, the party’s leadership had a change of mind as they started hinting at their return to the house. This was, in some ways, due to the fact that the masse resignations left the field open for the government, posing no real challenge to its attempt to draft and pass legislation.

In addition, the opposition leader must be consulted by the prime minister on appointments to key constitutional positions, such as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau or the chief election commissioner, and even the selection of an interim caretaker set-up.

The party also seemed to realise that the seat of the opposition leader was also too big a price to be left to a lawmaker visibly “pliant” to the government.

Moreover, the person in this position also enjoys certain privileges. For example, there is a convention that the opposition leader must be given the floor whenever they ask for it. This makes it very difficult for the government to ‘shut down’ criticism from the opposition.

After they resigned en masse, NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, in scattered moves, accepted the resignations of over 120 PTI lawmakers.

If all PTI lawmakers, whose de-notification have been suspended by the LHC decided to return, and provided that the speaker makes no attempt to thwart their participation in house proceedings, they can claim the seat of the opposition leader based on their majority.