PTI resignations' verification hits snags once again

Fawad accuses NA speaker of 'running away' from accepting resignations

ISLAMABAD:

A day before the PTI was to approach National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to get its en masse resignations accepted, the process hit a snag once again on Tuesday after the party was forced to put off the plan due to the 'unavailability' of the speaker.

The PTI has now decided to send its delegation comprising senior leaders instead of a group of its 127 MNAs – as planned earlier – to discuss the matter with the NA speaker once he returns to Islamabad, the NA spokesperson said in a statement.

The party was expected to visit the National Assembly on December 28 (today) for the confirmation of the resignations of MNAs. The lawmakers were supposed to gather at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad before heading to the NA.

Besides, PTI chief Imran Khan had also announced an address to the lawmakers via a video link.

‘NA speaker running away’

Reacting to the development, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said the NA speaker "runs away" whenever the party's lawmakers want to verify their resignations.

Speaking to journalists about the matter in Lahore, the PTI leader said that former chief whip of PTI Malik Aamir Dogar called on Ashraf but he was “nowhere to be found”.

“He was told that the speaker has gone to Larkana,” Fawad claimed. “We’re getting information that he’s going to Australia afterward.”

He further said the PTI will have to approach the Supreme Court if the resignations were not accepted.

“I want to tell the speaker that tendering resignations is our constitutional right,” Fawad said, adding that the NA speaker should “accept the resignations and hold countrywide elections”.

On the other hand, PTI’s former chief whip Malik Aamir Dogar called on National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and informed that a party delegation wanted to meet him to discuss the resignations of party lawmakers.

The NA spokesman, while confirming the telephonic contact of Dogar with the speaker, said the latter had “welcomed this gesture of the PTI leader contacting him”.

Also read: PTI MNAs to confirm resignations ‘individually’

PTI leaders, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Parvez Khattak, and other lawmakers, have asked to set a meeting with the NA speaker, the secretariat said in a statement.

The speaker said there was always room for discussion and dialogue among politicians, the NA speaker was quoted as saying.

“The speaker also reiterated that there was a clear procedure in the Constitution of Pakistan and the rules of business of the National Assembly regarding the confirmation of resignations of MNAs and this procedure would be followed in letter and spirit,” the statement said.

However, he added that verification of their resignation would still be subject to one-by-one meetings.

Both parties agreed that the delegation comprising senior leadership of PTI would meet the NA speaker soon after his return from Garhi Khuda Baksh.

The speaker is in Garhi Khuda Baksh to attend the 15th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the meeting is expected to be held after the NA speaker returns to Islamabad.

It is pertinent to mention here that after the PTI decided to have its parliamentarians' resignations verified in person, the NA Secretariat had notified that the speaker would again summon the party's MNAs into his chamber one by one.

PTI lawmakers will be called in for verification of their resignations in pursuance of "Paragraph (b) of Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in NA, 2007".

The official statement said that the NA secretariat had also responded to PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi's letter written on December 15.

The speaker asked the party that according to Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, he was required to meet 127 MNAs of the party, including its chairman Imran Khan, individually to ascertain whether they had tendered their resignations freely and without duress.

PTI lawmakers had submitted their mass resignations on April 11 after PTI chief Imran Khan was ousted as prime minister through a confidence vote in parliament.

The National Assembly Secretariat in its letter said that it summoned the MNAs on May 30 while giving them time from June 6 to 10 to appear in person and confirm their resignations. However, it said, “none of them came”.

Without giving any reason, the speaker had accepted the resignations of only 11 PTI MNAs in July.