Meeting with JI chief: Speaker asks PTI MPs to return to the house

Hopes resignation issue will be resolved today

LAHORE:

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has called upon the lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) who resigned from the federal legislature on Friday to review their decision and raise their concerns on the floor of the house. He also said that Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Sirajul Haq and opposition leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah have requested him not to process the resignations of the PTI parliamentarians as negotiations were under way to end the political imbroglio.

Sadiq said that PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi informed him by telephone on Friday that the PTI lawmakers have submitted their resignations. “The National Assembly secretary has received the resignations and I’ll check them on Monday,” he said. He added that he has requested Qureshi to review their decision and instead raise their reservations on the floor of the House.

“According to the rules of business of the National Assembly, there is no time bar on the speaker to accept the resignations,” he said, adding that he would have to verify the resignations which could take some time. Sadiq said that he couldn’t reject the resignations – but could certainly delay the process in consultation with all other political parties in parliament. He, however, voiced hope that the issue would be resolved amicably before Monday evening.

Earlier in their meeting JI chief Sirajul Haq urged the National Assembly speaker to delay his decision on the resignations of the PTI lawmakers. Haq said that in his Saturday’s meeting with PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari they had decided to approach the speaker with a request to delay the process of accepting the resignations of PTI lawmakers in order to give them time to solve the prevailing political impasse. “If the resignations are accepted, it will become even more difficult to solve the political crisis,” he added.

Haq added that leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Kursheed Shah and parliamentary leaders of other political parties have also requested Speaker Sadiq not to accept the resignations of the PTI parliamentarians. He said that he has received positive vibes from both the government and PTI and expressed hope that the political standoff would end soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2014.