Photo courtesy National Assembly of Pakistan
National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Friday accepted the resignations of another 35 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs, bringing to 70 the number of resignations he has accepted this week after months of claiming he required individual verification to process the applications.
On Tuesday, the speaker accepted the resignations of 34 PTI lawmakers—32 elected and 2 reserved seats—and 1 from Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the chief of the Awami Muslim League. Earlier, on July 28, 2022, he had accepted the resignations of 11 PTI lawmakers, bringing the total resignations accepted thus far to 81 of the 131 MNAs who had resigned en masse after PTI chief Imran Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence. The party now has 73 lawmakers, including dissidents, in the Lower House of Parliament.
“In accordance with Clause (1) of Article 64 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, read with Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly of Pakistan 2007, the honorable speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan has been pleased to accept the resignations of the following members of the National Assembly with effect from April 11, 2022, the date when the letters of respective resignations were submitted,” read a press release issued by the National Assembly Secretariat after the latest resignations were accepted.
It said the resignations had also been forwarded to the Election Commission of Pakistan for the de-notification of the lawmakers. The lawmakers whose resignations were accepted today are:
- Haider Ali Khan, NA-2
- Saleem Rehman, NA-3
- Sahibzada Sibghatullah, NA-5
- Mehboob Shah, NA-6
- Muhammad Bashir Khan, NA-7
- Junaid Akbar, NA-8
- Sher Akbar Khan, NA-9
- Ali Khan Jadoon, NA-16
- Usman Khan Tarakai, NA-19
- Mujahid Ali, NA-20
- Arbab Amir Ayub, NA-28
- Sher Ali Arbab, NA-30
- Shahid Ahmed, NA-34
- Gul Dad Khan, NA-40
- Sajid Khan, NA-42
- Mohammad Iqbal Khan, NA-44
- Aamer Mehmood Kiani, NA-61
- Syed Faizul Hassan, NA-70
- Chaudhry Shoukat Ali Bhab, NA-87
- Umar Aslam Khan, NA-93
- Amjad Ali Khan, NA-96
- Khurram Shahzad, NA-107
- Faizullah, NA-109
- Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar, NA-135
- Syed Fakhar Imam, NA-150
- Zahoor Hussain Qureshi, NA-152
- Ibraheem Khan, NA-158
- Tahir Iqbal, NA-164
- Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, NA-165
- Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, NA-177
- Abdul Majeed Khan, NA-187
- Andaleeb Abbas (reserved seat)
- Asma Qadeer (reserved seat)
- Maleeka Ali Bokhari (reserved seat)
- Munawara Bibi Baloch (reserved seat).
While the speaker has claimed that he accepted the latest resignations after reviewing public statements and social media posts of the relevant lawmakers, it is clear they were at least partly motivated by reports that the PTI was planning to have President Arif Alvi direct Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence and assume the slots of opposition leader, chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee and a new parliamentary leader.
PTI protest
Speaking to media outside Parliament House after the latest resignations were accepted, PTI leaders accused the speaker of reneging on his own principles by accepting the applications without individual verification. Reiterating a demand for early elections, former speaker Asad Qaiser claimed they had wanted to meet Ashraf and verify all pending resignations but were denied this. “This is immoral and illegal what the speaker has done,” he claimed.
Likewise, PTI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the acceptance of resignations coupled with the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies meant a majority of the country lacked public representation and the only way forward was fresh elections.