PTI MNAs being given salaries even after they quit
PHOTO: FILE
Even though the resignations of PTI MNAs including former premier Imran Khan have not been accepted yet, sources in the NA secretariat told The Express Tribune that the salaries of these members were sent to their accounts from March to April 10.
They added that salaries and other benefits after April 10 would be decided after the confirmation of the resignations.
Salaries after April 10 were not released until a final decision was made.
The sources said PTI members were still in possession of parliament lodges.
Read more: Dissident PTI legislators submit reply to ECP
Resignations could not be accepted unless confirmed individually.
Resignation is a process that had to be completed.
The sources said resignations submitted by PTI MNAs were the responsibility of the NA secretariat or its speaker.
NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf would take up the matter after a few days, they added.
Last month, former prime minister Imran Khan had tendered his resignation as a member of the National Assembly, a day after his ouster as the premier by the lower house of parliament through a no-confidence vote.
Later, then NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri, in his capacity as the acting speaker, had accepted the resignations of 123 PTI MNAs, who accepted their party chairman Imran’s appeal.
The former prime minister has been claiming that his exit from the post -- in a dramatic manner after he tried preventing the no-trust motion from being presented in the House on April 9 and only became possible an hour after April 10 had started -- was part of a “foreign conspiracy” plotted in Washington to overthrow his government with the help of the opposition parties.
After his ouster from the slot, the former premier asked his party’s MNAs to tender their resignations and refused to accept the newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
During the NA session starting on May 9, the speaker will begin the process of verifying the resignations of the PTI members one by one.
Before the process of transition of power could be completed, the en masse resignations moments before PM Shehbaz's election lengthened the litany of political and constitutional crises the country is facing amid a deepening economic crisis.
“There can be a delay in accepting the resignations as no time-frame is given in the laws for it,” Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT)’s Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said.
Once the resignations are given, the PILDAT president said, the speaker would meet MNAs in person and seek clarification, which will take some time and ultimately give some time to the newly-elected government.
When the resignations are accepted, the speaker will inform the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which will then hold by-elections to fill the vacant seats.
Commenting on the situation arising out of the en masse resignations, Mehboob said optically it would look weird as there would not be any opposition member sitting on the benches.
“It is not good for democratic credentials but there is no bar on the government to move ahead.”