ISLAMABAD: After multiple delays, the much-awaited meeting between National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and PTI leaders will take place in Parliament House on Thursday (today) at 11:30am for the personal verification of party MNAs’ pending resignations, the assembly spokesperson said on Wednesday.

A four-member committee led by PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will meet the speaker, a source in the National Assembly Secretariat (NAS) told Dawn. The other three members will include Asad Umar, Amir Dogar and Pervez Khattak.

The PTI announced mass resignations from the National Assembly on April 11, a day after the ouster of then prime minister Imran Khan through a vote of confidence in parliament.

However, while the PTI wants the speaker to accept the resignations collectively, Mr Ashraf insists he will accept them one by one after the personnel appearance of each member of National Assembly.

Qureshi says party ready for parliamentary role, but govt not serious

A source in the PTI said the party was seeking a way to return to the assembly.

On the other hand, the speaker was said to be under government’s pressure not to “accept the resignations”. Mr Ashraf hinted that some PTI lawmakers had contacted him and requested “they do not want to get their resignations accepted”.

As for today’s meeting, he said: “They are most welcome. I will brief them in the light of the Constitution and I hope that [the PTI lawmakers] are sane enough to understand.”

He said the PTI team wanted to meet him on Tuesday, but he was in Naudero to attend the 15th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

On Wednesday, the speaker contacted Amir Dogar, former chief whip of PTI in the National Assembly, and invited him to a meeting on Thursday.

Asked if any PTI MNA contacted him and expressed willingness to rejoin the assembly, Mr Ashraf said: “There are many, but being a custodian of the house and its members, I cannot tell their names.”

Earlier on July 28, Mr Ashraf accepted the resignations of only 11 PTI lawmakers.

The PTI challenged the move in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in August, but the court dismissed the petition the next month.

The party then approached the Supreme Court, requesting it to set aside the IHC order. A decision is still pending.

Meanwhile, PTI’s Mr Qureshi said his party was willing to play a role in parliament, but the government was not ready to make a serious commitment in this regard.

Australia tour

PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that although the speaker had called the PTI team for a meeting on Thursday, Mr Ashraf was leaving for Australia on the same day.

However, he also said that after the resignations of MNAs, courts had nothing to do with that matter.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2022