Verification of resignations: PTI members skip meeting with speaker

Resignations of five PTI members deemed invalid

ISLAMABAD:

The stalemate over the resignations of Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators from the National Assembly continued on Thursday as none of the three PTI members called to appear before the NA speaker showed up to verify their resignations in his chambers. The ball is now in the court of the NA speaker who can reject the resignations at his discretion.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq asked Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Ali Muhammad Khan and Asad Umar to appear on September 25 to verify their resignations, which were submitted on August 22 by 31 PTI MNAs. Three other members - Dr Arif Alvi, Dr Shireen Mazari and Munaza Hassan - have been asked to appear before the speaker today (Friday). PTI chief Imran Khan has been asked to appear before the speaker on October 13 to verify his resignation.



However, PTI says members of the party will not appear before the speaker individually to verify their resignations. In response to the speaker’s notice, PTI had asked for all its members to be called at one time.

As per the rules, the NA speaker has to verify if each resignation was tendered freely or through coercion. He also has to verify the signatures of the resigning members in his presence. Following a review, the speaker declared 26 resignations valid. These 26 PTI members were asked to appear before the speaker on various dates.

The resignations of five members were declared invalid as these were addressed to the PTI chairman instead of the NA speaker. These members included Mujahid Ali, Colonel (retd) Ameer Marwat, Saleemur Rehman, Junaid Akbar and Qaiser Jamal.

Three other PTI members - Gulzar Khan from NA-4 Peshawar, Nasir Khattak from NA-15 Karak and Musarrat Ahmedzeb on the women’s reserved seat - refused to submit their resignations. The only resignation accepted so far is of Javed Hashmi. The speaker and other political leaders, as well as the political jirga, have called on the PTI to withdraw the resignations.

A senior PML-N legislator told The Express Tribune that the decision to reject or accept these resignations will now be an entirely political decision which can go either way. Members of the political jirga comprising Jamat-e-Islami Chief Sirajul Haq, Senator Rehman Malik from Pakistan Peoples Party [PPP] and Senator Hasil Bizenjo held a meeting with the speaker and urged him to delay his decision as it may exacerbate the political crisis. In response, the speaker said that he would act in accordance with the law as enough time has already been given to PTI.

Talking to the media, the speaker said, “Parliament is different from D-Chowk [of Constitution Avenue] where all the members can be invited at one time.” He referred to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the National Assembly and said that any resigning member would have to appear before the Speaker in person to satisfy him that resignation was submitted voluntarily and was genuine.  “Any member can claim in the coming days that he resigned under pressure,” he added. He said the termination of members could take place if they remain absent for 40 days and a motion is moved in the house over the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2014.