Speaker NA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepts 43 more resignations of PTI MNAs; sent to ECP for de-notifying them
ISLAMABAD, Jan 24 (SABAH): Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Tuesday accepted resignations of 43 more Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers a day after they announced the withdrawal of their resignations in a bid to bar opposition leader Raja Riaz Ahmed Khan, a dissident PTI leader, from negotiating with the government on caretaker set-up in case general elections are announced. The resignations have been to Election Commission of Pakistan for de-notifying them.
The move has taken the tally of PTI resignations approved by the speaker to 124 as he approved 70 earlier this week and 11 in August last. The resignations were submitted by the PTI MNAs in April last in protest against the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister through a no-confidence vote.
The speaker has accepted the resignations of Riaz Fatyana, Sardar Tariq Hussain, Mohammad Yaqub Sheikh, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, Sardar Mohammad Khan Leghari, Zile Humma, Rukhsana Naveed, Ghazala Saifi, Nousheen Hamid, Sobia Kamal Khan and others. According to a private TV channel, the speaker NA has also accepted the resignations of two PML-Q members including Chaudhry Moonis Elahi and Chaudhry Hussain Elahi.
The speaker approved the resignations and sent them to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), following which notifications will be issued.
Apart from the dissenting members of the PTI, only two members of the former ruling party remain in the lower house.
According to sources in the Speaker’s Office, the resignations of 124 PTI lawmakers have been accepted so far, whereas the resignations of two members were not accepted due to their requests for leave.
The electoral watchdog also received the resignations of PTI members and will decide on their de-notification in a meeting today. The ECP will also contemplate whether to accept the former ruling party’s MNAs’ request to pardon them from de-notification.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, PTI senior leader and former minister for information and broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry stated that the party had decided to return to the NA in “limited numbers” to remove opposition leader Raja Riaz, otherwise “this National Assembly had no representative status left for us to return to it”.
“At present, the Shehbaz Sharif government has lost the support of 172 people and the government is depending on turncoats (dissenting PTI MNAs) to save it,” he added.
Fawad Chaudhry maintained that as a result of the speaker’s actions to save Raja Riaz, 40% of the NA seats became vacant and the country was inching closer to elections.
“The only solution to this crisis is national elections,” he stated, questioning how long the government would avoid the nation.
He added that the people would have to decide and the decision would be made through voting.