44 PTI MNAs approach Speaker NA to withdraw their resignations
By Muhammad JuniadPublished On 23 Jan 2023
ISLAMABAD: Some 44 Members of the National Assembly of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have sent an email to Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, informing him to withdraw their resignations. This was revealed by the senior leader of PTI, Asad Umar, in a Tweet posted Monday morning.
He said the move came after Speaker NA Raja Pervez Ashraf was not accepting the resignations of all of their party MNAs, adding that the next party move would be to get appointed PTI’s opposition leader.
Soon after his tweet this morning, PTI MNAs reached Parliament House to withdraw their resignations, however, they were told that due to a short-circuit-related incident, the House would remain closed for three days.
It may be mentioned here that Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf had so far accepted some 81 resignations of PTI MNAs, that too in three phases.
All of the PTI MNAs had resigned from National Assembly following a successful vote of no-confidence against former premier Imran Khan on April 9 last year, and the same had been accepted by the then-acting speaker Qasim Suri.
However, after coming into power, Raja Pervez Ashraf not only reversed the Qasim Suri decision but also announced to go into the personal verification process of each resignation. Before this could even materialize, he accepted 11 resignations of leading PTI leaders in July last year, exactly 109 days after they resigned from their seats.
The NA speaker accepted the resignations of several key PTI leaders, including former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, ex-interior minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah, ex-state minister for parliamentary affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, and ex-state minister for information and broadcasting Farrukh Habib, under Article 64 (1) of the Constitution.
The other PTI lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted are Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakoor Shad, and Shandana Gulzar Khan. Mazari and Shandana were elected on the reserved seats for women from Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, respectively.
Due to changing political scenario post Local Government elections in Karachi, news started pouring in about possible Presidential order asking PM Shehbaz Sharif to seek vote of confidence. This forced the entire PDM-led government to devise a counter strategy after which Raja Pervez Ashraf.
On Jan 17, Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignation of 35 MNAs and on Jan 20, he accepted 35 more, thus brining the total number of resigning PTI MNAs to 81.
