ISLAMABAD: Makhdoom Javed Hashmi had emerged tall when he came out of the joint session of the parliament on September 2 after rebelling against Imran Khan and resigning his National Assembly seat. But was he a stranger in the house that day?

Technically, that is what Speaker Ayaz Sadiq’s acceptance of his resignation with effect from August 18 makes it look like.

At least the date confronts the National Assembly Secretariat with the paradox whether the speech of far-reaching political consequences that the conscientious leader made forms part of the parliamentary record or not.

Know more: Profile: Javed Hashmi, the perennial rebel

A senior official of the NA Secretariat, holding the view but not willing to be named, confirmed to Dawn that Mr. Hashmi’s resignation was received by the Secretariat on August 18 and has been accepted from the same date.

Many wonder as to what would be the status of the speech made in the parliament some two weeks after the date from which the resignation was accepted.

Acceptance of his resignation on an earlier date raises question

A source close to Javed Hashmi, however, insisted that it was a mistake on part of the NA Secretariat. He said resignations of 31 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members were submitted to the secretariat on August 22, including that of Mr. Hashmi, who, in his speech, confirmed his signature on it and declared that he remains “the elected president” of PTI.

“Since the party had collected resignations of its lawmakers days before their collective submission, it might be bearing the date it was handed over to the party for onward submission,” said the source.

Speaker Sadiq said that he was withholding the resignations, tendered by the PTI MNAs, for verification.

He had also overruled objections to the participation of the PTI MNAs in the joint session after they had turned in their resignations.

Analysts believe that regardless of the date of submission of resignations, these cannot be accepted from the same date if they had to be verified.

Acceptance of the resignation of Mr Javed Hashmi, with retrospective effect has created problems for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as well.

Article 224 (4) of the Constitution says, “When, except by dissolution of the National Assembly or a provincial assembly, a seat in any such assembly has become vacant, not later than 120 days before the term of the assembly is due to expire, an election to fill the seat shall be held within 60 days from the occurrence of the vacancy”.

That means the ECP is supposed to hold bye-elections in NA-149, the seat vacated by Mr Javed Hashmi, before October 17.

Normally, the ECP requires seven weeks to make arrangements for polls, including the 45 days required for the processes starting from nominations and ending with the polling.

A senior official of the ECP said the process of finalising the names of district returning officer and returning officer for the bye-election has begun. “In all probability the schedule will be announced before the end of this week,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ECP has to brace up for the possibility of the acceptance of resignations of over two dozen more PTI members in a week or so.

In his memorable speech to the joint session, the seasoned politician Javed Hashmi claimed that no PTI MNA had willingly tendered resignation to the party leadership and that a system existed in the country “to engineer making and breaking of governments”.

He made the claims shortly after disclosing “a scripted plan to overthrow the government, using violent protests as a pretext”.

He accused Imran Khan of bypassing a decision of the PTI’s core committee not to join Dr Tahirul Qadri’s march on Prime Minister’s House after receiving a message from ‘somewhere’.

The military had immediately come up with a statement that it was not behind the PTI and PAT sit-ins in any manner.

Published in Dawn, September 9th , 2014