ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has nothing to do with the resignation of PTI lawmakers because its role starts only after the acceptance of a resignation. It holds by-election on the vacant seat as required under the constitution, according to a senior official of the commission.

“It is just like sending a letter to a wrong address,” he told Dawn on Wednesday when asked about the National Assembly speaker’s decision to send a communication to the ECP informing it about the reasons for his inability to verify the resignations tendered by PTI MNAs two months ago.

Know more: Our point of action is clear; we have resigned: Qureshi

The official said the speaker did not need to inform the commission at all if he had rejected a resignation. “It does not make any sense to inform the ECP that a person will continue to be member of the assembly because his resignation has not been accepted.”

The official said if the speaker had accepted a resignation, it was for him to notify the vacancy. Only a copy of the notification is required to be sent to the commission so that it can hold by-election on the vacant seat.

He said that under the constitution, the ECP was required to hold by-election on a vacant seat within 60 days.

Meanwhile, analysts are of the opinion that neither does the government want to accept the resignation nor was the PTI interested in quitting the assembly. They believe that the speaker’s decision to refer the matter to the ECP was nothing but a ploy to prolong the matter.

They say that although there is no timeframe mentioned in the law for the acceptance of a resignation by the speaker, in normal circumstances it is done in two to three days. They say there are a number of options available to the speaker these days.

“The speaker can send SMS or email to the PTI MNAs informing them that he has received their resignations and will be available in his chamber for those who claim that they have not sent the resignation,” one of the analysts said, adding that after wide publicity of such a message it would not be difficult for the speaker to reach a conclusion.

He was of the opinion that the speaker was deliberately delaying the matter. Otherwise he could have accepted the resignation of at least Shah Mehmood Qureshi and four other PTI legislators when they submitted their resignations to the National Assembly Secretariat in August.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2014