Islamabad: The standoff continues as the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, has told a PTI mission that he would accept resignation letters of the 123 PTI MNAs individually in line with the rules of the National Assembly (NA) and the Constitution of Pakistan.
Led by former speaker Asad Qaiser, a delegation of PTI leaders, including Qasim Khan Suri, Malik Amir Dogar, Amjad Khan Niazi, Faheem Khan, Dr. Shabbir Hasan Lal Milli, Attaullah, Tahir Iqbal, visited Raja Pervaiz Ashraf at Parliament House to discuss the verification of resignations.
According to a statement issued by the National Assembly of Pakistan, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf All decided to call the PTI MNAs individually for confirmation of resignations.
سپیکر راجہ پرویز اشرف سے ملاقات کے لیے پی ٹی آئی کے وفد کی سابق سپیکر اسد قیصر کی سربراہی میں پارلیمنٹ ہاؤس آمد،
ملاقات میں پی ٹی آئی کے قومی اسمبلی سے استعفوں کے معاملے پر تبادلہ خیال۔ pic.twitter.com/KR9o8Phf8P
— National Assembly 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) December 29, 2022
During the meeting, the Speaker said: “Doors should not be closed in politics, there should be communication between politicians.”
He revealed that a PTI MNA from Karachi had approached the High Court to block the acceptance of the resignation.
During the meeting, the PTI delegation placed an eight-point agenda in front of the NA speaker, which stated that the party had resigned en masse to pave the way for early elections.
The party further maintained that it did not submit the resignations for the speaker’s “entertainment”, adding that the move to accept only 11 of them was “unconstitutional”.
Citing a previous decision by the Supreme Court, the PTI delegation said that the resignations had been accepted by the former deputy speaker and the notification could not be reversed. The party called on the NA speaker to forward their resignations to the electoral watchdog.
Resignation matter
Soon after the ouster of Imran Khan from the Prime Minister’s office in April this year, 123 MNAs of the PTI had submitted their resignations en masse, out of which only 11 have been accepted by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf so far.
The PTI had first challenged the move in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The IHC, however, had dismissed the petition. Later, the party had approached the Supreme Court, praying it to set aside the IHC order, terming it “vague, cursory, and against the law”. A decision on the PTI’s plea in the apex court is still pending.
