Calling it quits: 28 PTI members resign from Punjab Assembly

Letters were submitted to assembly secretary as speaker was not available


Abdul Manan August 28, 2014

LAHORE:


Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Mian Mahmoodur Rashid submitted resignations of his party’s 28 MPAs to the assembly secretary. However, two MPAs chose not to comply with their party chief’s call for resignations.


Out of provincial assembly’s total 371 members, the house currently has 368 sitting MPAs of which 311 belong to the government while 57 are part of an opposition alliance. PTI occupies 30 of those 57 seats, of which 28 resigned from their posts. PTI MPAs Nighat Intesar from PP 107 and Jahanzaib Khan Khichi from PP 239, however, refused to follow suit.

Even in the National Assembly, 26 of the party’s MPs have called it quits.



In the Punjab Assembly, two of the MPAs who resigned said they had decided to do so as they believed that the house was formed on the basis of corruption, rigging and nepotism.

However, the remaining 26 stated that they have submitted their resignations because their party chairman wanted them to.

Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal was not available in his chamber and the assembly secretary Rai Mumtaz Hussain Babar received their resignations on his behalf.

Rai Babar told The Express Tribune that he has informed the speaker about receiving the resignation letters and
it is up to him to start the
verification and inquiry process. The speaker would examine the letters and he can take as much time as he thinks fit.

Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, along with other MPAs in the assembly cafeteria, told reporters that the remaining two MPAs would soon also tender their resignations to the PA secretariat. The PTI MPAs fully agree with party chief Imran Khan’s decision and they made the move following party discipline, he explained.

The people’s mandate was stolen because of a ‘puppet election commission’ and Imran Khan is the first political leader who has stood up against rigging, Rashid said. “We will not rest until we bring this issue to a logical conclusion. We will not rest until we unmask those who rigged these elections and bring them before court. We will not allow by-elections on our vacated seats.”

After PTI’s 28 resignations, there will be tough competition between Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and Pakistan Peoples Party for their nomination of the next opposition leader, as both parties have eight seats each in the Punjab Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2014.

 

COMMENTS (1)

Sara | 9 years ago | Reply

I would be more than happy if all resignations are accepted. Let PTI learn the same way AAP learnt in India, that it needs to do more work in real life than Tweet-ing and Facebook-ing to get votes next time.

I wish Facebook would had the prime-minister slot, and we know very well whom would had won it.

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