National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday accepted resignations of 11 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs under Article 64(1) of the constitution of Pakistan.
The confirmation was made on the official Twitter handle of the National Assembly.
The PTI lawmakers had tendered their resignations en masse after Imran Khan’s government was ousted through a no-confidence motion in April. Later, the then deputy speaker Qasim Suri accepted the resignations and issued a notification in this regard. Currently, the total number of MNAs who had resigned stands at 131.
It is not clear as to why the resignations of only 11 MNAs have been accepted. Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farrukh Habib and Ijaz Ahmed Shah are among the lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted. Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema and Abdul Shakoor Shad’s names are also on the list. Dr Shireen Mazari and Shandana Gulzar Khan, who were both MNAs on reserved seats for women, will also cease to be members of the lower house of parliament.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) has reiterated its stance that the general elections will be held on time and the coalition government will complete its tenure.
The announcement was made after the alliance’s top brass meeting held in Islamabad on Thursday following the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Punjab chief minister election case. The meeting was also attended by PML-N supreme leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif via a video link. It discussed the ongoing political crisis in the country after the top court’s verdict.
The meeting urged the federal government to send a presidential ordinance to the Supreme Court for the interpretation of Article 63A via a full court bench. It said that as per the constitution of Pakistan, the executive and judiciary have been given responsibilities and no institution should cross the domain of the other.
The PDM expressed concern over the recent verdict of the Supreme Court which created “chaos, confusion and political crisis” in the country.
“The country’s representative parties have expressed their anxiety on this issue. Legal experts, media and civil society have also not agreed with this decision,” the resolution added.
It further said that the different standards of justice and interpretations have justified the concerns of the ruling coalition, therefore, the presidential reference should be sent to the Supreme Court as soon as possible. Addressing a press conference flanked by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and other PDM leaders, Maulana Fazlur Rehman demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the verdict in the PTI prohibited funding case, which had been pending for the last eight years.
Speaking on the occasion, Maryam Nawaz said that everyone feared the demand for a full court bench because the one-sided decision was to be made and Ladla – a term coalition government leaders use for Imran Khan which literally means darling – was made the beneficiary.
Maryam said that if the courts wanted to correct their decisions then they should start with the Panama Papers case.
Constitutional ambit
Also, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday urged state institutions to work within the ambit of the constitution. “It is important that all state organs act within the domains stipulated by [the] constitution,” he said in a tweet.
The PM emphasized that his Wednesday’s speech in the National Assembly focused on the smooth working of the democratic system. “The core of my argument during my speech at the National Assembly was that for a democratic system to work smoothly and effectively,” he said.
