ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has urged MQM lawmakers to resign from assemblies and seek fresh mandate from the people.

The demand was made by PTI information secre­tary Naeemul Haq in a statement here on Sunday, a day after deputy convener of Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment (MQM) Dr Farooq Sattar announced for the second time that his party had nothing to do with Altaf Hussain.

Mr Haq was of the view that mere announcement that the MQM had got itself disassociated from Mr Husain was insufficient and the party would have to practically demonstrate it.

He said that MQM lawmakers in the National Assembly (NA), Sindh Assembly and Senate had been elected in the 2013 general elections as representatives of Mr Hussain. He added that the people had given them votes when the party had contested elections under the leadership of Mr Hussain and they were actually representing Mr Hussain in the legislatures.

“If the MQM people have really distanced themselves from Mr Hussain, they need to go to the people again to seek a fresh mandate,” he said.

Mr Haq said that if the MQM members did not resign from the legislatures the people would be justified in believing that the MQM leaders in Pakistan were still in contact with Mr Hussain.

Mr Haq had earlier asked the government to take action against Mr Hussain under Article 6 of the Constitution.

While terming “explanations” given by Dr Farooq Sattar and other MQM leaders over Mr Hussain’s anti-Pakistan speech as “vague and insufficient”, PTI MNA from Islamabad Asad Umar had earlier demanded that the MQM itself move resolutions in the NA and Sindh Assembly to condemn Mr Hussain to show that the party had really distanced itself from the London leadership of the party.

Despite repeated attempts, no-one from the MQM could be contacted for comments.

Besides PTI, the main opposition PPP has also stated that the MQM had no other option but to completely disassociate itself from Mr Hussain, if the party wanted to do politics in the country. However, opposition leader in the NA Syed Khurshid Shah had stated that the PPP would like to see the MQM playing a positive role in parliament in future.

Opposition Leader in Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan had stated that it would be difficult to keep Altaf Hussain out of politics as the country’s history showed that in the past all attempts of implementing “minus one formula” had failed.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2016