By Naveed Naqvi
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday de-notified 35 lawmakers belonging to former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party after National Assembly’s speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted their long-pending resignations.
Some 123 lawmakers loyal to Khan resigned in last April after he was driven out of power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote. The speaker, however, then only accepted 11 resignations while insisting that the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification.
“Consequent upon the acceptance of resignations by the Hon’ble Speaker, National Assembly of Pakistan … the Election Commission of Pakistan hereby de-notifies the following Members of National Assembly of Pakistan with immediate effect,” the ECP said in a notification.
Resignation of most of the lawmakers, considered close to the former prime minister were accepted by the speakers. The list issued by the election authorities included Fawad Chaudhry, Murad Saeed, Omar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Pervaiz Khattak, Sheharyar Afridi, Ali Amin Gandapur, Asad Umar, Hammad Azhar, Amir Dogar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Zartaj Gul, Ali Haider Zaidi and Qasim Khan Suri.
The denotification comes days after Khan hinted at returning to the National Assembly to be part of the consultative process of a caretaker setup for general elections later this year.
Talking to journalists at his residence in Lahore on Monday, Khan said: “If we don’t return to the National Assembly then the PML-N led coalition government will form the caretaker setup (after completion of its tenure in this August) in consultation with handpicked opposition leader Raja Riaz. We don’t let this happen.”
The opposition leader is a key post as he along with the prime minister appoints the caretaker prime minister to oversee elections.
Khan has also said that President Arif Alvi will soon ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to secure a vote of confidence from the National Assembly. “We are going to test Shehbaz Sharif. He is going to have sleepless nights as we are in contact with PML-N MNAs. He will struggle to prove majority in the house.”
The decision also follows a media talk by the PTI’s vice president Chaudhry Fawad Hussain wherein he said that his party was sending a delegation to meet with the National Assembly speaker to secure the offices of the leader of opposition, parliamentary leader and public accounts committee.
Later Hussain thanked the speaker for accepting the resignation of his party lawmakers later in the day in a Twitter post.
“… until you accept 70 more resignations, the posts of leader of opposition and parliamentary party will come to Tehreek-e-Insaf… it is also out party’s right to hold the public accounts committee.”
Hussain, in a sperate tweet said PTI chief Khan will contest by-elections in all 33 National Assembly constituencies that fell vacant after the speaker accepted resignations of the party’s lawmakers.
“Tehreek-e-Insaf will contest elections on all the seats and Imran Khan will be the candidate of Tehreek-e-Insaf on these thirty-three seats.”
The ruling coalition of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), however, said it would not contest the by-elections.
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