Govt not going soft on resignation issue

The government on Tuesday decided to adopt an aggressive strategy vis-à-vis the resignation of two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers in the National Assembly -- Muhammad Sajjad and Murtaza Javed Abassi.

In a meeting with Speaker Asad Qaiser, Prime Minister Imran Khan directed him to uphold parliamentary traditions regarding the resignations, saying the speaker had the full authority to decide on the matter.

It was decided that if the lawmakers did not contact the National Assembly Secretariat within seven days, their resignations would be accepted. The speaker said that neither he would budge under any pressure nor could he be intimidated or blackmailed.

After receiving resignation on December 14, the National Assembly Secretariat had dispatched two letters to Sajjad and Abassi, elected from NA-14 and NA-15, respectively, to contact the secretariat in person within seven for the confirmation of their resignations.

According to the parliamentary traditions, the resignation would be accepted if the lawmakers failed to contact the secretariat within two days, said an official source. Besides, the sources also confirmed that the lawmakers had failed to appear before the secretariat despite the passage of five days after the issuance of the letters.

During the meeting, Speaker Asad Qaiser apprised the prime minister of the consultation with constitutional and legal experts on the resignations issue and the strategic discourse that may be followed in this regard.

The meeting between the prime minister and the speaker was followed by a statement issued by the PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz in which she had urged the lawmakers to ask the speaker to accept their resignations.

In the conversation, the prime minister noted that the government was ready to negotiate with the opposition for the continuation of democracy and the law and order but there would be no compromise on corruption and accountability.

Since the opposition parties have started its anti-government protest and threatened with resignations from the national as well as the provincial assemblies, the prime minister and key ministers in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led federal government had constantly been warning the opposition parties that their resignations would be accepted immediately.

However, PML-N’s parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif had said in a statement that the party leadership had set December 31 as the deadline for members’ resignations but all the PML-N members of the assembly had already submitted their resignations to the leadership.

However, Asif said that the final decision about presenting the resignations will be taken by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). Asif noted that the “resignations will be submitted to speaker on the date decided by the PDM and no member will submit resignation individually.”