After much ado about whether the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – the ruling party in Sindh – would move ahead with the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) plan to tender resignations from assembly seats, a handful of National Assembly (NA) and Sindh Assembly legislators from the PPP submitted their resignations to party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday.
On Tuesday, the 11-party opposition alliance announced that parliamentarians from its constituent parties would hand in their resignations to the respective party chiefs by the end of the month – a last-ditch attempt to send the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government packing.
In the PPP, those taking the lead in submitting their resignations include MNAs Syed Agha Rafiullah and Abdul Qadir Patel, Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh and MPAs Surendar Valasai, Nida Khuhro and Sadia Javed.
Quoting the party leadership, sources in the PPP told The Express Tribune that most PPP lawmakers in the NA, provincial assemblies and Senate would tender their resignations before the upcoming PDM jalsa in Lahore on Sunday, as an expression of their commitment to the party line.
“We will even sacrifice our government in Sindh to send the incompetent PTI government packing and to save the country from further devastation,” insisted Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah.
Confirming his decision, MNA Patel said he had written a resignation for the speaker of the NA, but had sent it to the party leadership. “Pakistan is facing multiple challenges because of the PTI government’s incorrect policies. People are in a quandary because of inflation, unemployment and the terrible condition of the economy,” he stated, accusing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government of trampling on the parliament and rules of business.
Meanwhile, the provincial energy minister told the media that he had sent his resignation, addressed to the Sindh Assembly speaker, to Bilawal. “The party leadership has reposed its trust in me, giving me important responsibilities in government. I will follow what the party decides.”
MPA Valasai, who is also the Bilawal House spokesperson, was confident that the PTI government had no choice but to step back in the face of the challenge mounted by the PDM. “The days of puppets are now over,” he asserted.
Resigning from the reserved seat for women, Javed termed the seat the party’s ‘amanat’ (given for safekeeping) and said she had full confidence in the PPP leadership’s decisions.
Following the PDM’s announcement, resignations from several Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmakers in Punjab have started pouring in, while one of its MNAs from Sindh, Kheal Das Kohistani, did the same three days ago.
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