ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided that its MNAs will appear before the National Assembly Speaker en masse on Oct 29 to verify their resignations.

The party has also decided not to participate in any future by-elections that may be held in the country on vacant seats in the assemblies.

These decisions were made by the party on Saturday during a core committee meeting, chaired by its chief Imran Khan.

Briefing reporters, PTI Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari declared that the party’s decision to resign from the National Assembly, as well as the Punjab and Sindh assemblies, was final. She said the party MPAs in Punjab and Sindh would also appear before the speakers of their respective assemblies, whenever they were called.

“The parliamentary party of the PTI will meet the NA Speaker on Oct 29 to verify their resignations and all party members will present their viewpoint together,” she added.

When asked why PTI MPAs are not resigning from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, she said there had been no protests over rigging in the province so far. She said if anyone had any complaints, the party was ready to open that constituency for vote verification.

The PTI, she said, had decided to continue its protest to highlight the massive rigging in last year’s general elections and the party’s sit-in as well as their public meetings across the country would continue. She said the party leadership had decided to hold two public meetings in a week in different parts of the country after 10th of Muharram (Nov 4).

She said the party would hold a massive show of power in Islamabad on November 30, the call for which has already been issued by Imran Khan.

The NA Speaker had earlier invited PTI lawmakers in groups to verify their resignations in person and confirm that they were willing to quit the assembly of their own free will.

The PTI leadership maintained that since all 30 members had submitted their resignations en masse, they should be accepted simultaneously.

On Friday, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq sent notices to 25 MNAs of the PTI, asking them to personally appear before him on Oct 29 “so that he could forward their resignations to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for further process.”

“In case you do not present yourself before the speaker on the given date and time, it will be presumed that you are not willing to go through the legal and transparent process of verification of your resignation, in which case the speaker will not be legally in a position to verify your resignation and inform the ECP accordingly,” said the notice dispatched to the PTI MNAs.

After the acceptance of Javed Hashmi’s resignation, the PTI is now left with 33 lawmakers in the National Assembly. Three of them have already refused to abide by the party’s decision to quit the assembly, whereas the resignations of five MNAs were declared invalid because these were addressed to the PTI chairman, instead of the speaker.

The notice also carried details about how and when the PTI leadership sent in their resignations en masse to the speaker’s office.

“Please note that the undersigned [speaker] received resignations of PTI members in bulk, including yours, on Aug 22, 2014. Subsequently, 25 PTI members, including yourself, led by Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, participated in the joint sitting of parliament on Sep 3, 2014, where he also made a speech on the floor of the house. However, when Mr Qureshi was asked by the speaker to meet him in his chamber in connection with the verification of resignations, he left the house, along with the other members, without going through the process of verification. The speaker directed that all the PTI members who have apparently resigned may come on one day but the verification of resignations will be carried out individually by the speaker to determine that each resignation is voluntary and genuine, a prerequisite which is dictated by law and the Rules of Business of the National Assembly,” the notice said.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014