SC directs Qasim Suri to submit written reply in stay order case

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former deputy speaker of National Assembly Qasim Suri to submit his written reply in a stay order case. Balochistan National Party’s (BNP) Lashkari Raisani challenged the victory of Qasim Suri, who contested the 2018 general election. On September 27, 2019 election tribunal declared Suri’s election from the National Assembly seat, NA-265 null and void, however, he moved to the Supreme Court and served his term on a stay order until the PTI government ended. A three-member bench headed by CJP Justice Qazi Faez Isa took up the plea against Qasim Suri. How Qasim Suri remained MNA on stay order, the CJP asked at the outset of the hearing from his counsel. Your counsel enjoyed the whole term as MNA on stay order and now you are saying the tenure of NA is completed and the case has become ‘ineffective’. The court ordered Qasim Suri to submit his written reply in the stay order case in three weeks. Meanwhile, the court also issued notice to the Registrar’s Office of the SC to submit an inquiry report into the matter within three weeks as to why the ex-NA deputy speaker’s case was not fixed for hearing after the stay order.