ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Friday accepted the resignations of another 35 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) readily declared their seats vacant while the PTI accused the speaker of being “biased and partisan” and termed his move “immoral and illegal”.

The speaker, who had previously refused to accept the resignations without personal verifications, has already accepted 81 resignations, out of 131 submitted by the members belonging to the PTI and lone Awami Muslim League (AML) member Sheikh Rashid in April last year after the ouster of then prime minister Imran Khan following a no-confidence motion against him.

With two seats falling vacant — one of PTI Chairman Imran Khan due to his disqualification by the ECP and that of Jaffar Leghari due to his death — the speaker still holds the resignations of 48 PTI members with him.

The expected announcement regarding the acceptance of the resignations from the National Assembly Secretariat came at a time when the PTI members were having a meeting at the nearby Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House before coming to the Parliament House for an unscheduled meeting with the speaker. The PTI leaders led by Senior Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi later held a news conference at the main entrance of the Parliament House when they were told that the speaker was not present in his chamber.

PTI leaders ask Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to accept remaining 48 resignations, demand snap polls

Veteran politician Syed Fakhar Imam, former minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Usman Khan Tarakai, Arbab Amir Ayub, Amjid Ali Khan, Andaleeb Abbas, and Maleeka Bokhari are prominent among those whose resignations were accepted by the speaker in the third installment.

Others who have been de-notified as MNAs by the ECP are Dr Haider Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mehboob Shah, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Junaid Akbar, Sher Akbar Khan, Ali Khan Jadoon, Mujahid Ali, Sher Ali Arbab, Shahid Ahmed, Gul Dad Khan, Sajid Khan, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Syed Faizul Hassan, Chaudhry Shoukat Ali, Umar Aslam Khan, Khurram Shahzad, Faizullah, Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar, Zahoor Hussain Qureshi, Ibraheem Khan, Tahir Iqbal, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, Abdul Majeed Khan, Asma Qadeer, and Munawara Bibi Baloch.

News Conference

Talking to media outside the Parliament House, senior PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Qaiser, Fawad Chaudhry, and Asad Umar alleged that the speaker had reneged on his past stance by accepting the resignations of the lawmakers piecemeal.

The PTI leaders urged the speaker to accept the remaining resignations to end the crisis once for all, adding that fresh elections were the only way out of the prevailing situation.

Mr Qureshi reiterated that the PTI wanted snap polls so that the people can decide for themselves but the rulers did not want to face the people. He said the rulers were nervous, as there was no uniformity in their ranks, which was evident from the boycott of second phase of Sindh’s LG polls by one of their allies.

He alleged that the “imported rulers” had no roadmap to get the country out of the prevailing crises but would just cling to the power to do away with their corruption cases.

Mr Qureshi said the speaker proved by his actions that he was not the custodian of the house but a representative of a party. He said Raja Pervaiz had written him a letter that he could not accept the resignations as he wanted to make sure the decision was without any external pressure because it was his constitutional responsibility. However, Mr Qureshi stated that today the speaker had turned his face from his responsibility by accepting the resignations of 35 more MNAs.

“We brought the MNAs whose resignations are left for acceptance so the speaker can verify and accept them but the speaker postponed the meeting,” he added.

Asad Umar termed the acceptance of the resignation “illegal and a mockery of democracy”. He said not only the speaker, but his entire staff was also purportedly missing when they reached his office for a meeting. Fawad Chaudhry said they were standing before a “feeble and helpless parliament”.

“Only a small percentage of Pakistan is represented in all assemblies today. This is how they are running the country,” he added. Mr Chaudhry challenged the speaker to disclose the names of those 17 to 18 people who, according to his claim, were in touch with him. “All our remaining MNAs are present here and demanding that their resignations be accepted today,” he added.

He also warned the government that the country had been moving towards a situation similar to Sri Lanka as Pakistan was facing the worst political and economic crises at present. “[The] speaker has once again run away from the assembly. We should be given the date of general elections,” said Mr Chaudhry who had served as the information minister in the previous PTI government.

Asad Qaiser said the party lawmakers wanted to visit the speaker in person to submit and verify their resignations, “but we were not provided with the chance”.

Interestingly, the speaker had already accepted the resignation of all those who were holding the press conference and part of the PTI delegation meant for a meeting with the speaker.

Tahir Sadiq from Attock was the only one spotted by the media to be present on the occasion whose resignation has not been accepted by the speaker so far.

“What the speaker has done is immoral and illegal,” declared Mr Qaiser.

On Thursday, the speaker had put off the National Assembly (NA) session, scheduled to be held on Friday, for a week without giving a reason apparently after the reports emerged that the PTI planned to send those members to the assembly on Friday, whose resignations had not been accepted so far.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2023