ISLAMABAD: More than two months after they were submitted, the fate of resignations of 30 lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) still remained hanging in the balance as a deadline passed on Wednesday, with the PTI members of the National Assembly refusing to meet the NA speaker individually and the latter rejecting their demand for receiving them collectively.

Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq insisted that the PTI MNAs should meet him one by one between 2pm and 3.20pm to confirm their resignations sent to him in mid-August as part of the party’s protest against alleged rigging in last year’s general elections.

But the PTI said the MNAs would go to the speaker together lest any one of them was persuaded to change his loyalty.

After both sides stuck to their positions, accusing each other of not meeting their legal obligations, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters that the MNAs would not go to the assembly.

On the other hand, the speaker said he was left with “the only option” to write to the Election Commission of Pakistan to inform it about the latest development.

The parliament house was gripped by suspense for hours after 25 PTI legislators arrived there in response to a notice from the speaker following an insipid National Assembly session, which was presided over by Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi while his senior waited for his unwilling guests in his chamber. PTI Chairman Imran Khan and four other MNAs did not reach there for only partially explained reasons.

The speaker in his chamber and the MNAs in a lounge sat at a little distance from each other as the deputy speaker and the assembly’s secretary and joint secretary shuttled between the two sides, conveying one side’s views to the other, under the gaze of journalists.

Speculations were rife about why the speaker wanted to separately meet each resigning member and why the PTI, if it was serious about the resignations, was not allowing its members to confirm their resignations individually as had been done by former party president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi during a joint sitting of parliament last month, leading to a by-election for his seat in Multan that he lost to a PTI-backed independent.

There was talk of the two sides actually seeking to avoid possibly unwelcome consequences of the resignations and the resulting by-elections which the PTI would not contest without electoral reforms it wants.

The speaker appeared to be angry when a reporter asked him if it was actually a “noora kushti” (fixed fight).

After the first deadline of 3.20pm expired with no result, word came that the PTI MNAs would wait until 4pm. Finally after his third meeting with the lawmakers, the deputy speaker told journalists to wait until 4.15pm for a possible response from the speaker.

But later it was said that the deputy speaker would bring a response from the speaker a little later after offering Asar prayer.

And when that too did not happen, the PTI MNAs marched out of the lounge, shouting “Go Nawaz go” slogan.

PRIVATISATION WORRIES: Earlier, in the National Assembly session, Opposition Leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah urged the government to consult opposition parties about its privatisation policy and criticised the plan to sell its up to 10 per cent share in the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited. He also criticised the closure of the Pakistan Steel Mills for several days and said he feared it could be a precursor to its privatisation.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014