Tuesday saw the resignations of 35 members of the lower chamber of parliament accepted by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, a day after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Imran Khan hinted at going back to the National Assembly to negotiate with the ruling coalition for a caretaker arrangement. Political upheaval will result as a result of the country’s ongoing power struggle between the opposition and the ruling parties, with the general populace suffering as a result. Politics have surrounded the resignation of 131 PTI-affiliated MNAs, who offered their resignations en masse after Imran Khan’s cabinet was overthrown by a motion of no confidence in April of last year. However, the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 10 MNAs first. The PTI chairman then ran for the vacant seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh; all but one of those seats were won by the PTI leader. However, this time, the ruling coalition declined to run in the by-elections for the positions where the 35 MNAs who belonged to the previous ruling party had their names removed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The move by the NA speaker will only cause upheaval in the nation and increase calls for a general election. More by-elections are not a smart decision when the country is in election mode in two provinces after the dissolution of the provincial parliament. Period.