PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Wednesday said that National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had committed a “great injustice with his office” by accepting the resignations of 34 PTI lawmakers.
The PTI had resigned en masse from the lower house of parliament following the ouster of PTI Chairman Imran Khan in April last year. Subsequently, the NA speaker had accepted only 11 of the resignations, stating that the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification.
In an apparent bid to scuttle PTI’s purported plan to bring a confidence motion against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Ashraf on Tuesday accepted the resignations of 34 PTI lawmakers alongside Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, resulting in their de-notification by the electoral watchdog.
The move came as a surprise for the PTI as well as political experts as two weeks earlier, the speaker had stated that the resignations would only be accepted once the lawmakers appeared in person for verification.
Commenting on the matter during an interview on Geo News show Capital Talk, Qaiser said: “I think the speaker committed a great injustice with his office.
“When you occupy a constitutional position, then you should make decisions keeping in mind the law and the Constitution. You have to act in accordance with the law [rather] than fulfilling the wishes of political people.”
Qaiser noted that the NA speaker had recently told a PTI delegation that the party’s lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification of their resignations.
“Did he complete that process? What he has done is totally illegal and unconstitutional.”
He said the PTI had demanded that all of its resignations be accepted in one go and questioned why “piecemeal” acceptance was taking place. “Basically they do politics and try to tease us. And what is the impact? The stock market has crashed.”
He reiterated that in his opinion, what Ashraf did was in contravention of the law and the Constitution.
Qaiser further said that Ashraf had told the PTI delegation that visited him that he would make sure they were given time to voice their concerns while also urging them to return to parliament.
Thus, there was a “contradiction” in the NA speaker’s words and his actions, Qaiser said, adding that those in positions of power had to think about the country’s interest over political interests.
“Whatever he has done will be a dirty stain in our assembly’s history.”
He also alleged that the speaker accepted the resignations on the orders of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.
He also expressed befuddlement over the government’s plans seeing as how the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies stood dissolved. He said that the acceptance of the PTI resignations had benefitted the party as the by-election would take place alongside provincial polls.
“The cards they are playing are turning against them and benefitting the PTI.”
He said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan would contest the polls on all the seats vacated in the NA. He asserted that the government had “facilitated” the PTI by accepting the resignations as Imran’s name would be plastered everywhere while campaigning.
