ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has asked National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to resign after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dismissed disqualification references against him and PTI general secretary Jahangir Tareen.

“I ask the speaker. Is there any justification for you to continue to hold office after the ECP’s decision? Shouldn’t you resign?” Mr Khan said at a news conference outside his Banigala residence here on Thursday.

The PTI chief claimed that the civilian government and the army were not on the same page and had divergent viewpoints on important national issues, including the ongoing war against terrorism.

The news conference was held after an ECP bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza dismissed on technical grounds the references sent by the speaker seeking disqualification of Mr Khan and Mr Tareen for allegedly concealing their assets.

Govt to challenge ruling to dismiss petitions against PTI leaders

“If the speaker has any self-respect or credibility, he has no justification to stick to his office,” Mr Khan said.

The PTI chief accused the speaker of playing a partisan role by sending the references against him and Mr Tareen to the ECP, instead of the references filed by the party against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He was of the view that a speaker having no confidence of the opposition members could not run the house in a proper way. “The speaker in connivance with the Sharif family tried to blackmail me in order to gag my voice.”

Mr Khan said that through his lawyer he had submitted all details of his assets and the required documents to the ECP in December last year, but the government intentionally kept on dragging the matter in order to malign him for raising the issue of Panamagate.

The cricketer-turned-politician claimed that he had purchased the flat in London in 1983 with the money he had earned by playing cricket, adding that he had submitted to the ECP the complete record of sale deed and trail showing transfer of money through banks.

Mr Khan said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had made all-out efforts to find something against him and Mr Tareen, but failed miserably, adding that he was being targeted only for exposing the corruption of the Sharif family.

In reply to a question about the recent disclosure made by former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani about the role of the CIA in tracking down Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, he alleged that the present rulers were busy in damaging the institution of the army. “Damaging the army is like damaging the country,” he said and alleged that both the army and the government were not on the same page.

Mr Khan said if the government believed that “the army is toeing a wrong line, it should have the courage like [Turkish President Tayyip] Erdogan to say it publicly”.

He said when Mr Erdogan had some issues with his army, he went to the people, and not to the US or India, to seek their help.

Govt response

The government has decided to file an appeal in the ECP against its decision to dismiss the disqualification references against the PTI leaders.

“The decision of the Election Commission is not final and it is our right to file an appeal to reopen the cases,” PML-N MNA Daniyal Aziz said at a joint press conference with Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb.

Mr Aziz said the ECP had not closed the cases against Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen on the basis of their innocence, but on the issue of maintainability that they had challenged.

He said the PTI chief had in his press conference given an impression that the petitions against them had been dismissed after normal proceedings and that they had been found innocent.

Ms Aurangzeb said Imran Khan had taken shelter of “maintainability” in the ECP despite his own claim that he would present himself for “search” (accountability).

“If Imran Khan was a clean man than why didn’t he face cases in the ECP and opted to escape,” she asked.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017