ISLAMABAD: A week after joining the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Senator Babar Awan on Thursday sent his resignation to Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani.

In the handwritten resignation, Mr Awan has told the Senate chairman that he is “resigning from the House of Federation upon his own free will under Article 64(1) of the Constitution”.

Mr Awan, who had last week announced his decision to end his 21-year-long association with the Pakistan Peoples Party, has praised the “performance” of the Senate, saying that it was an honour for him to remain associated with the house, which is the “custodian of the Constitution”.

“I hope that under your guidance, the upper house will protect the rights of the vulnerable sections of the society, less-developed areas, minorities, women and trans­genders,” Mr Awan writes in his resignation in the Urdu language.

He has not mentioned any reason for quitting the Senate, eight months prior to his retirement from the upper house at the end of his six-year term.

Mr Awan, whose term in the Senate is to end on March 11 next year, has to quit his Senate seat because under the 18th Constitution Amendment, the defection clause does not allow any parliamentarian to retain his position in the previous political party, if he joins another party.

Sources said that Mr Awan had sent the resignation by post which would reach the Senate secretariat in a day or two.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2017