File photo. Aamir Qureshi—AFP
Forty-five lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday collectively withdrew their resignations from the National Assembly on the orders of party chief Imran Khan—who had earlier directed them to resign en masse when he was ousted as prime minister through a vote of no-confidence.
The latest U-turn from the PTI was confirmed by PTI leader Asad Umar in a posting on Twitter, saying the lawmakers had also emailed Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to apprise him of their decision. “The next step will be the nomination of the opposition leader,” he added. Seeking to defend the reversal of the party “policy” of the past nine months, PTI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said Khan’s decision was aimed at taking the posts of the leader of the opposition and parliamentary party leader.
Stressing this would remove the “fake” NA opposition leader, he said this would also prevent “turncoats” from voting for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a potential vote of confidence.
PTI leaders subsequently staged a brief sit-in outside the NA speaker’s house, demanding that their withdrawal request be immediately accepted. They also met with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and urged it to not de-notify the 45 MNAs who had withdrawn their resignations.
After Imran Khan lost the vote of no-confidence in April, 123 PTI MNAs resigned en masse from the National Assembly on his instructions. Speaker Ashraf initially said he could not accept any resignations without individual verification but then relented on 11 in July. Last week, he accepted the resignations of 69 more PTI MNAs and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid in two phases after the PTI hinted it would return to the NA to claim the slots of the Public Accounts Committee chairman; leader of the opposition; and parliamentary leader.
The PTI is still hoping to trigger early elections and has already dissolved the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies as part of its “pressure” tactics, but the ruling coalition maintains that general elections will be held on time, while polling in the provinces can occur earlier.