The move is part of a multipronged strategy the meeting discussed to make the ‘final showdown’ successful. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
ISLAMABAD: Reviving its 2014 dharna strategy, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to seek resignations from its 33 members of the lower house of parliament.
Senior party leadership on Monday took this important decision during a meeting held at the PTI chief Imran Khan’s residence in Bani Gala to discuss the party’s future course of action in connection with its planned November 2 protest in the federal capital.
“It has been decided in principle that the PTI MNAs will be asked to submit their resignations with the party chairman,” said a senior party leader, who attended the meeting.
However, he said, the meeting concluded that the timing to formally forward those resignations to the National Assembly Secretariat would be discussed at a later stage. The move is part of a multipronged strategy the meeting discussed to make the ‘final showdown’ successful, he added.
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“Unlike the 2014 dharna, the resignations will formally be forwarded to the government as a measure of last resort and after exhausting all workable options,” he said.
He said the PTI realises that unlike in the past, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would probably not opt for delaying tactics in accepting the PTI MNAs resignations once submitted.
To a question, he said, the issue of seeking resignations from the PTI lawmakers from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was also discussed but the meeting did not reach a conclusion in this regard.
The PTI has a total of 33 MNAs, 26 elected on general seats, six on reserved seats and one on minority seat. During the 2014 sit-in staged against the alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections, the PTI had exercised this option.
On August 22, 2014, 34 PTI MNAs, including Imran Khan, submitted their resignations to the Speaker of National Assembly as part of their campaign to oust the PML-N government.
In October 2014, the speaker asked all the MNAs to come individually for verifying their resignations in his office, but the PTI MNAs insisted on coming en bloc, resulting in a deferment of the process.
The PTI’s main reason to avoid individual verification of resignation by MPs was the party’s fear that some of its lawmakers might take back their resignations if allowed to verify individually.
At that time the government also deliberately avoided to accept the resignations. Also, the major opposition group, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had advised the government to not accept the resignations to ward off an uncertain situation.
The NA speaker later referred the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan. However, in April 2015 the PTI MNAs rejoined parliament ending their seven-month long boycott.
When contacted, the PTI MNAs Engineer Hamidul Haq Khalil and Dr Imran Khattak said if the leadership directed to submit their resignations then they would definitely submit the same without wasting any time. However, they said, any such decision had so far not been conveyed to them.
In her short comment over the issue, the party’s central leader Dr Shireen Mazari said the PTI would go to any extent to hold the ‘corrupt’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accountable.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2016.
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