LAHORE: Not all PML-N members of the Punjab Assembly could meet Wednesday’s deadline given to them by the leadership to submit their resignations from the provincial house.

PML-N deputy secretary general Attaullah Tarar told Dawn that 149 of the 160 MPAs submitted their resignations to the party leadership by Wednesday. “The remaining will submit the same by Thursday,” he said.

Asked whether the 11 who could not meet the party deadline had some reservations, Mr Tarar said: “Not at all. They will submit their resignation by Thursday (today).” The party, he said, did not seek resignations from those five lawmakers it had expelled over disciplinary issue. The PML-N has 165 lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly.

Commenting on the resignations of the party MNAs, Mr Tarar said: “Most of them have also submitted their resignations as well.”

Party leader says the remaining legislators will do it today

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the opposition alliance of 11 parties formed in September last to oust the government of Imran Khan, has given a Dec 31 deadline to its components to submit their lawmakers’ resignations (to its leadership).

Since not many resignations of the PML-N provincial lawmakers had been submitted, the leadership on Monday last directed the MPAs to show haste in handing over their resignations (to the leadership) by Wednesday (Dec 23). The PML-N leadership advanced the date of resignations to avoid embarrassment ahead of the PDM deadline of Dec 31. Interestingly, no such deadline has been given by the party to its National Assembly members.

The PML-N had made 15 parliamentary groups to coordinate with the party lawmakers regarding submission of their resignations.

“It appears that either there was some lack of coordination among the parliamentary groups and MPAs or the latter did not bother about the request of their parliamentary leader Hamza Shehbaz to submit resignations on Wednesday,” a party source said and further commented that had de-facto president of the party Maryam Nawaz directed the lawmakers, they would have rushed to meet the deadline.

The PML-N believes the Senate elections due in March next will not be held if the opposition tenders resignations en masse. But the PML-N is keenly waiting for the PPP to have a final decision on the issue of resignations.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has convened a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) in Karachi on Dec 29 to discuss the proposal of en masse resignations from the national and provincial assemblies, especially saying goodbye to the Sindh government.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020