ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani is set to give his much-awaited ruling on resignations of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) members on Oct 5, when the upper house will begin its new session.

During the last day of the previous Senate sitting on Sept 18, Mr Rabbani had told the members that he would add references from the law and the Constitution to his ruling to justify his act of not accepting the resignations the MQM members had submitted on Aug 12.

MQM legislators had tendered resignations in protest against alleged victimisation of the party in Karachi by Rangers. The decision on the resignations is also pending in the National Assembly as well as the Sindh Assembly.

While no one is questioning the act of the speakers of the National and the provincial assemblies for holding up the resignations, Mr Rabbani’s similar act has been under discussion in political gatherings since he is generally known as a “man of principles” as he always tries to run the house strictly in accordance with the rules and the Constitution.

Unlike the then speaker of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, who had personally received the resignations from MQM lawmakers in his chamber, Mr Rabbani had refused to receive the resignations of eight senators and asked them to follow the procedure and submit it to the secretary of the Senate secretariat.

The eight senators who had resigned were Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Khushbakht Shujaat, Nasreen Jalil, Dr Farogh Naseem, Maulana Tanveerul Haq Thanvi, Mian Attique, Mohammad Ali Saif and Nighat Mirza.

The nation witnessed a similar situation last year when legislators of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had submitted resignations from the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab.

The NA speaker at that time had stated that he would accept the resignations only after getting them verified one by one from every PTI member. He had called the PTI members to personally appear before him to satisfy him that they had not tendered resignations under pressure. But since both sides were not willing to see the resignations accepted, the PTI members insisted that they would appear before the speaker in a group since they had collectively submitted the resignations. And the speaker refused to accept the resignations.

However, the MQM legislators have so far not been even contacted by the speakers or the Senate chairman for verification of their resignations.

When contacted, MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi confirmed that so far status quo prevailed on their resignations since no one from the Senate secretariat had contacted them for verification.

Answering a question, he said that the MQM members were ready to come for the verification individually as well as in a group and they would not make it an issue like the PTI did.

In response to another query, Mr Mashhadi said that except for Khushbakht Shujaat who had sent her resignation through email from the US, the other seven senators had submitted hand-written resignations.

Rule 18 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012 states: “A member may resign his seat under Clause (1) of Article 64 of the Constitution by writing under his hand addressed to the chairman whereupon resignation shall become effective after verification by the chairman from the member.”

Soon after their resignations, the prime minister had assigned Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman the task to persuade the MQM legislators to withdraw the resignations.

Due to the Maulana’s efforts, the MQM had agreed to hold direct talks with the government and even to review its decision to quit the legislatures.

However, the talks were suspended following a ban on the media to telecast speeches of MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

Published in Dawn October 1st, 2015

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