Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that his party was not keen on giving resignations as it would give the government the opportunity to easily amend the constitution to bring in a presidential system.
In an interview to a private TV channel on Tuesday, the former prime minister responded to a question on why the PML-N did not support resignations, and said that such an action would only be effective if the whole opposition resigned.
He added that resignations could also have a negative impact of taking away the constitutional right of no-confidence from the opposition, using which it could bring down the government.
He added that currently, there was a lot of talk about bringing the presidential system, even among ‘educated people’, and about making “supra-constitutional bodies” to run the affairs of the state.
“We do not want that such entities get the opportunity to amend the constitution once the opposition is out of the parliament,” Abbasi added.
Abbasi’s comments came in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement by Pakistan Democratic Movement chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman that the alliance would be holding a march against inflation in Islamabad on March 23.
The PDM chief stated during a press conference that people from across the country would converge in Islamabad to protest against inflation.
Regarding resignations, the PDM chief said that the alliance had a “unanimous policy” regarding the resignations of legislators from the assemblies, but a decision on the right time for such an action would be made in the future.
