NA procedures: Speaker sends notices to PTI lawmakers

Asks them to make a personal appearance before processing application to quit lower house

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq issued notices to 26 lawmakers belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday, asking them to make a personal appearance.

A PTI delegation, led by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had submitted 31 resignations earlier. But the speaker’s office said five resignations were invalid as PTI members had addressed them to their party chairman instead of the NA speaker.



The party’s total strength in the National Assembly is 34 but three of its members can’t be reached.

As per the parliamentary procedure, on personal appearance each member will be asked whether or not he tendered the resignation willingly. The speaker will further proceed, after this formal verification.  According to an official in speaker’s office, the speaker can also delay final notification on the resignations.

The party had announced that its members would tender their resignations from the lower house and three provincial assemblies in a bid to force the government to call fresh elections.

The party is staging a sit-in outside Parliament House  as it alleges that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came to power through massive rigging in the May 2013 elections.

While the NA speaker is holding consultations over the issue with political leaders, all parliamentary parties’ heads, legal experts and lawmakers have requested him not to accept the resignations.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) chief Sirajul Haq also met with Sadiq on Monday and requested him to not take action on the PTI lawmakers’ resignations.

Debates

During the National Assembly session, the PML-N’s chief whip and federal minister Sheikh Aftab Ahmad hinted at the government’s intention to take legal action against Dr Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan for their ‘anti-state agendas’.



“We will adopt a legal course against them [Imran and Qadri] for their anti-people and anti-Pakistan campaign. I think these people who want to ruin this country should be put behind bars,” he said.

Ahmad said a ‘baseless interview’ of a former election commission official was also part of a conspiracy. “The government will expose this by taking action against the retired official, who confessed that he had no evidence,” he said.

Commenting on Imran Khan’s reply to the Supreme Court, the minister said Imran Khan tendered a written apology in the morning, and started maligning the former chief justice in the evening. “This is the character of this person [Imran Khan]” he added.

He also took a swipe at Dr  Qadri. “He is living in  an air-conditioned container while the poor employees of his charitable organisation, students and common people are left under open sky,” he said.

The PML-N lawmaker Marvi Memon said she hoped both Imran Khan and Dr Qadri would not provoke the government.  She also questioned the timing of these sit-ins. “It is a time when the armed forces are busy fighting Indian aggression as well as militants,” she added.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Syed Ghulam Mustafa said the crisis had emerged due to the government’s casual approach and negligence and now there was a need for a political solution. In case of use of force, he said, some elements within can exploit the situation and can derail the democratic system through bloodshed.

However, another PPP lawmaker Ayaz Soomro suggested that the NA session should be convened in the evening as a token rebuttal of these sit-ins. “In the morning there is no activity in these dharnas,” he said.

However, a number of lawmakers – including those sitting on treasury benches – suggested that the government show patience and avoid use of force at any stage against the protesters.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2014.