PTI ready to verify resignations at last

Info minister rules out possibility of early elections

ISLAMABAD:

After a delay of eight months, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at last decided to really quit the National Assembly as its Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday wrote a letter to NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to set a time in the coming week for the formal verification of the resignations of party members, who had resigned back in April this year.

This appears to be the first serious move by the PTI to leave the lower house of parliament and force the ruling PML-N led ruling alliance to announce a date for elections as the party lawmakers had verbally announced resignations in April but never appeared before the NA speaker to verify the same when directed to do so before the last budget session.

However, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb ruled out the possibility that the PTI’s move would force early elections on the PML-N-led ruling alliance, saying “they [PTI lawmakers] have already resigned and government is in power for the past seven months now”.

The government spokesperson said, “Elections will happen on October 23.”

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The information minister said the PTI move showed that when it failed to force the ruling alliance to announce elections by resorting to different means in the past eight months, it finally decided to exert pressure by saying that it was ready to appear before the NA speaker.

Also, Marriyum pointed out that the PTI expressed willingness to verify resignations “because they want to distract from IK [Imran Khan’s] corruption cases and last 4 years’ performance [of PTI]”.

Though Imran had announced to opt out of the “corrupt system” on November 26 by announcing that the PTI would go for the dissolution of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, the party has yet to announce a date when it would dissolve assemblies.

The threat of dissolution of the two provincial assemblies, where the PTI is in power, was also aimed at forcing general elections but the coalition government has repeatedly said that the PTI won’t be able to achieve its target as elections would only be held in the assemblies that would be dissolved.

Previously, the PTI chairman had barred his party members from appearing before the NA speaker, terming it a trap.

Subsequently, the PTI legislatures didn’t show up and since then the matter was pending before the speaker when he had directed the NA Secretariat to deal with the resignations of PTI lawmakers afresh and present them before him so that they could be treated as per law.

Ashraf’s ruling had come amid claims and speculations that some of the PTI lawmakers were not willing to resign and were conveying messages that their resignations should not be accepted.

Several PTI lawmakers were asked on Thursday to confirm if all of them would appear before the NA speaker this time around but they didn’t reply till the filing of the story.

week for the verification of the resignations of the party members.

This appears to be first serious move by PTI to quit the NA as the party lawmakers had verbally announced resignations in April but had never appeared before the NA speaker.

Qureshi writes to NA speaker

The debate on the verification of PTI lawmakers started after Qureshi penned down a letter to Ashraf, urging him to verify the remaining resignations of the party lawmakers.

The PTI vice chairman, in his letter to the NA speaker, stated that the PTI MNAs can come to the National Assembly for verification of their resignations.

Qureshi said, “I am writing to you on the instructions of the PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan and in my capacity as the vice chairman and deputy parliamentary leader of the party.”

He wrote that after the conspiracy to remove former PM illegally and unconstitutionally from his office, 123 members of the PTI MNAs tendered their resignations on the floor of the house on April 11, 2022.

“I made an unequivocal verbal announcement of the decision for all party members to resign from the National Assembly seats with the clear approval and agreement of 123 MNAs who were present on the floor of the National Assembly,” he added.

In the letter, Qureshi pointed out that 123 PTI MNAs submitted written resignations to former deputy speaker Qasim Suri on April 11, 2022.

“The lawmakers had submitted resignations as per the Constitution and assembly rules,” the letter added.

“The resignations were accepted by the then deputy speaker of the National Assembly on April 13, 2022,” it noted, adding that National Assembly Secretary Tahir Hussain had also issued a notification in this regard.

However, he said that in a clear attempt by the incumbent government to avoid general elections in the country, the clear order of the former deputy speaker was not implemented.

“Later, only 11 resignations were accepted illegally on July 28,” it stated.

“It remains unclear on what legal basis could your office selectively de-seat some of the members of the NA instead of all the members who had tendered their resignations at the same time and similar manner on April 11, 2022. Unfortunately, despite a clear position by the PTI MNAs to resign and leave the National Assembly,” the letter reads.

He stated, “You have used the position to give political advantage to the government.”

Nevertheless, Qureshi said that in the interest of democracy and to demonstrate the clear political choice of the people of Pakistan, the PTI contested the by-elections held on the seats vacated because of this selective acceptance of resignations.

The public's verdict in favour of the PTI became very evident in these by-elections whereby the party won 75% of the by-election seats.

“We once again formally request you (Raja Pervaiz) to verify the remaining resignations without any delay,” Qureshi said, hoping that the speaker would not delay the matter any further.

“Although there is no need for any further action from our side, especially given the consistent public position taken by the party leadership and the individual members of parliament in respect of these resignation letters, we could agree on a time with you during the next week when we can come to the National Assembly and re-confirm resignations tendered by our members of the National Assembly,” he added.

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The letter reads that the proceedings of the NA, including passage of various key legislations, in the absence of the largest and most popular political party of the country from the floor of assembly, are a question mark on the legitimacy of the actions of this current incomplete National Assembly.

“We firmly believe that free and fair general elections are the only way to restore public's faith in the democratic process in Pakistan and uphold the mandate and sanctity of parliament,” he concluded.

The PTI MNAs had announced en masse resignations moments before Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the new prime minister on April 11 – a day after former premier Imran was voted out from the coveted slot through a no-confidence motion.

Imran has been claiming that his exit from the post was part of a “foreign conspiracy” plotted in Washington to overthrow his government with the help of the opposition parties.

After his ouster, he asked his party MNAs to tender their resignations and refused to accept Shehbaz as PM.

Since then the PTI MNAs did not attended the assembly sessions while those who did not resign were sitting on the opposition benches along with a few others.