Comeback trail: PTI MPs to make NA appearance on Monday

Move announced a day after MQM and JUI-F withdrew their de-seating motion

ISLAMABAD: Barely a day after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) withdrew their motions for de-seating the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan has given the green light to his party lawmakers to return to the National Assembly.

Emerging before the media at the conclusion of the party’s parliamentary meeting on Friday, the party’s national organiser Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced that “Imran Khan would return to the National Assembly on Monday. “PTI will play an active role as an opposition in the house,” he added.

In a surprise shift in the party’s aggressive strategy, the PTI central leader underscored the need of all political stakeholders to keep democratic traditions intact. At the same time, he cautioned that any attempt to interrupt Imran’s speech in the lower house of parliament will provoke an adverse reaction.

The PTI leaders have also decided to target the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for its alleged failures in the 2013 general elections. Imran will demand a full revamping of the incumbent poll supervisory body to ensure transparent elections in the future. The party will rely on the inquiry commission’s findings in this regard, its leaders decided.

PTI lawmakers in the National Assembly will also take up the issue in the Senate and will also demand a raft of electoral reforms.

Referring to the four-month-long sit-in staged by the party after the 2013 elections, he said, “We rightfully staged a protest for the sanctity of votes of the people and decided to bring an end to the protest after the judicial commission issued its verdict.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2015.