July 24, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 08, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 23: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed on Monday became the first parliamentary party leader and the 17th MNA to resign from the present graduate National Assembly, which came into being after the October 2002 elections.

Out of 17 MNAs, Qazi Hussain Ahmed is the fourth MNA to resign on the call of conscience, while the 13 others either resigned on the call of their party or for some other reasons.

The MMA president had announced last year that all the MMA members would resign from the parliament in protest against the passage of the controversial women protection bill.

Later, a split in the MMA on the resignation issue forced the MMA leadership to defer the decision after passage of the bill in November last year.

However, Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (F) continued to boycott the proceedings of the National Assembly. They even did not attend the last budget session.

Dr Tahirul Qadri quit his seat (NA-127) from Lahore as a mark of protest when the parliament approved a controversial bill allowing Gen Pervez Musharraf to stay in the presidency while retaining his uniform. Dr Qadri in his last speech said that he felt ashamed that parliament was allowing an army chief to continue ruling the country.

The second MNA who tendered his resignation in protest was BNP’s Abdul Rauf Mengal, who quitted his Khuzdar seat (NA-269) to protest the killing of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) chief Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation in Kohlu.

Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid Abbasi of the MMA was the third MNA to resign from the National Assembly (NA-44 Tribal Area IX) to register his protest over the October 30, 2006 air strike on a Bajaur Madressah in which over 80 students and teachers were killed.

As many as five members, including a minister, of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from Karachi resigned from their seats on the directives of party chief Altaf Hussain.

Minister of State for Religious Affairs Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain resigned from his office as well as his National Assembly seat on July 4 on the directive of his party.

Earlier, the MQM’s Rabita Committee had changed four MQM MNAs as they were unable to give sufficient time to their constituencies. As per party’s decision, Sarkaruddin (NA-240), Sultan Ahmed Khan (NA-243) and Haji Azizullah Brohi (NA-246) submitted their resignations to the National Assembly speaker on March 15, 2004 and Shamim Akhtar (NA-317 Women Sindh) on February 22 this year.

Abdul Qayyum Jatoi of the PPP also resigned from his NA-180 seat to become the district nazim of Muzaffargarh, but he did not defect his party. The PPP, however, failed to retain the seat which was won by Sardar Ashiq Gopang of the PML-Q.

Similarly, Sardar Salim Jan Mazari of the PML-Q also quit his NA-210 seat to become district Nazim of Jacobabad.

Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal Warraich of the PPP set a new tradition in the country’s parliamentary history when he resigned from the assembly (NA-196 Rahimyar Khan) seat and contested the election again on the PML-Q ticket. He is presently the minister of state for interior.

Eman Wasim, the daughter of Attock District Nazim Tahir Sadiq and niece of PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had to vacate her seat (NA-59 Attock) for the election of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Arbab Zakaullah was the other MNA who had to quit his NA-229 Tharparkar seat for the election of Mr Aziz. Later, Mr Aziz decided to retain his Attock seat and Arbab Zakaullah again became the MNA after winning the by-election.