LAHORE:
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rashid said on Sunday Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members would not attend the assembly session starting on Monday (today).
Rashid was speaking to The Express Tribune a day before the session.
“We have decided that we will not be part of the session beginning on Monday afternoon. We have submitted our resignations but it seems the government is not interested in accepting them,” he said.
Rashid said the decision to stay away from the assembly had been made by the party leadership.
Rashid had said on Thursday the decision to attend the session would be made at the joint parliamentary party meeting of National and Provincial Assemblies.
PTI MPAs had submitted their resignations to the assembly secretary in August in protest against what they called the rigged elections of 2013.
The PTI has 30 seats in the provincial assembly. Initially, Jehanzeb Khan Khichi and Nighat Intesar had not tendered their resignations. However, Khichi had later submitted his resignation leaving behind one pending resignation from Intesar who according to party sources was out of the country.
Some Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders have criticised PTI members for benefitting from the privileges reserved for MPAs. In their defence, Rashid said their resignations had not been accepted yet. He also defended his claim to the office of leader of opposition despite having submitting his resignation. “We are eligible to such privileges until our resignations are accepted.”
Rashid said all the PTI MPAs should be called together to verify their resignations. “We should be called together by the speaker for the purpose,” he said.
He said that currently PTI members were being called individually for the verification.
“This is being done in the hope of splitting the party. They want to split us, create divisions and put pressure on our MPAs to reconsider their resignations.
These tactics will not work. We will not tolerate this. The decision to resign was made with a consensus in the party,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2014.
COMMENTS (6)
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@Tony: as there is no accountability in the system so no one knows, who's getting what any way
Is it not corruption that PTI MNAs continue to draw their salaries and enjoy perks, while not attending the assembly. So techincally they are drawing salaries without doing any work. This leads me to believe PTI is corrupt at its core and doing corruption which ever way possibke.
@Adil Insafian: But the KPK GOvernor House has not been converted to a library. Why is that? Does not charity begin at home?
We want to see two brothers imran and qadri on the containers and PTI and PAT cousins around the containiers till... 2018. Thumbs UP
Democratic norms dictate that when you resign you also resign the privilege of using all the perks of being an MPA. I support PTI but this is just selfish behaviour and not in the interest of the state. If we are to make the Governor's houses libraries then we must first be ready to make the VIP lifestyle sacrifices ourselves too.
one cannot maneuver or expect make moves on a much maligned rigged chessboard