Fawad puts an end to rumours that the PTI may return to NA.
Former Speaker Qaiser has harsh words for current Speaker Ashraf, accusing him of committing “grave injustice” with his authority.
Days after it appeared that PTI might return to the National Assembly, party leader Fawad Chaudhry stated on Wednesday that the party had no plans to do so, but that it would undoubtedly make winning important positions in the lower house a requirement for doing so.
Fawad highlighted that the PTI aimed to reclaim the positions if it were to rejoin the parliament. He was referring to the significant positions the former ruling party had ceded and lost to its dissidents last year, including that of the opposition leader and PAC chairperson.
During his participation on the Express-News show “Hashtag Siyasat,” Chaudhry made this statement.
The PTI leader responded, “If the NA speaker was interested on witnessing party’s attendance in the activity of the lower house, it would surely be for the slots,” when asked if the party had made up its mind to return to the National Assembly.
Raja Riaz, a PTI rebel, is currently in charge of the parliamentary party in the National Assembly. The PTI MNAs who chose not to resign when the party opted to leave the assembly collectively in the wake of Imran Khan’s expulsion in April are led by the so-called “opposition leader.”
A day earlier, the speaker quickly accepted the resignation of 34 PTI legislators in what appeared to be an effort to reveal PTI’s plans to bring a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
It was believed that Imran’s declaration that he would introduce a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Shehbaz was a ruse to force the speaker to accept the resignations right away. But Ashraf would only accept the quantity necessary to guarantee the prime minister’s safety.
Sources have also verified the PTI’s intention to regain control of the most important seats in the National Assembly, claiming that the former ruling party will formally request the positions of opposition leader, PAC chairperson, and parliamentary leadership from Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
Pervez Khattak and Amir Dogar, two PTI leaders, have been given the responsibility. They will likely get in touch with the speaker on Thursday (today) and, if he is available, meet with him.
Despite accepting the resignations of 34 more of its MNAs, the PTI is anticipated to push for the three positions since it continues to be the major opposition party in the House.
In the same interview, Fawad stated that the PTI would not oppose if the ruling coalition opted to hold general elections this year in September or October.
The PTI representative reiterated his party’s complaints that it had received unfair treatment from former military commander Qamar Javed Bajwa and said that the establishment had contacted Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi to request that he not dismiss the provincial parliament.
He asserted that the former army chief’s “setup” was still in place and stated that “the establishment did not remain apolitical in the circumstance.”
Regarding the likelihood of the PTI-PML-Q merger, Fawad stated that the PML-Q, which is an ally and wants to help PTI in the upcoming elections, has received the party’s request for the merger with PTI.
However, no choice has yet been made regarding whether to choose CM Elahi as the new chief minister of the province following the impending elections or to transfer the presidency of Punjab to him.
Also on Wednesday, PTI leader Asad Qaiser criticised Raja Pervaiz Ashraf for accepting 34 PTI resignations out of the blue, claiming Ashraf had committed “grave injustice with his position.”
“When you have a constitutional post, then you should make decisions bearing in mind the law and the Constitution,” said Qaiser in an interview with a private news channel. Instead of acting in line with political leaders’ preferences, you must follow the law.
He recounted how the NA speaker had just informed a delegation from PTI that each of the party’s legislators will be asked to testify over their resignations.
“Has he finished that procedure? He has done something that is completely illegal and unconstitutional.
He added that the speaker’s action was against the law and the Constitution and questioned the reasoning behind the piecemeal acceptance of the resignations.
Qaiser added that the speaker had promised to ensure that the PTI legislators had time to express their concerns and had also requested them to return to the chamber.
Whatever he did will leave a soiled mark on the history of our assembly.
Additionally, he said that Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP co-chairman, had given the orders for the resignations to be accepted.
He said, however, that because the by-election would take place concurrently with provincial elections, the resignations from PTI had actually worked in PTI’s favour.
It is important to note that on April 11 of last year, 123 PTI MNAs collectively resigned, two days after their party’s chairman was dismissed as prime minister following a no-confidence vote.
Qasim Suri, a former NA deputy speaker, had acknowledged their resignations.
On April 17, however, the newly elected NA Speaker Ashraf gave the assembly secretariat instructions to handle the PTI legislators’ resignations once more and bring them to him so that they could be handled legally.
Later in June, the ruling coalition developed a plan regarding the mass resignations of PTI legislators from the assembly and decided to move through with phase-wise acceptance. As a result, the NA speaker accepted 11 of them.
They included some of the PTI’s top officials, including former interior minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah, former state minister for parliamentary affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, and former state minister for information and broadcasting Farrukh Habib. Shireen Mazari, a former minister of human rights, was also among them.
The NA speaker requested last month that PTI MNAs submit handwritten resignation letters to him, explaining that summoning these representatives personally was necessary to confirm that they were “willingly” resigning from their positions in the House.
But after the PTI leader said he would ask PM Shehbaz for a vote of confidence, the speaker accepted the resignations of 34 more PTI MNAs.
They are Murad Saeed, Umar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Pervez Khattak, Imran Khattak, Shehryar Afridi, Qasim Suri, Najeeb Haroon, Aslam Khan, Aftab Jahangir, Attaullah, Aftab Hussain Siddiqui, Ali Haider Zaidi, Alamgir Khan, Saifur Rehman, Fahim Khan,
Aliya Hamza Malik and Kanwal Shauzab, who were both elected to seats with a reserved majority, have also been approved.
Rashid, the head of AML, submitted his resignation, which was also accepted.
