By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Seven senators from opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party resigned from their Senate standing committees on Thursday, acting on instructions from the party’s incarcerated founder, Imran Khan.
The move, described as a protest against Khan’s detention and perceived assaults on democratic norms, escalates tensions in Pakistan’s polarized political arena.
The senators — Dost Muhammad, Zeeshan Khanzada, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Mohammad Humayun Mohmand, Falak Naz, and Aon Abbas Buppi — stepped down from committees overseeing critical areas such as human rights, economic affairs, and national health. Their resignation letters framed the decision as “voluntary” but explicitly tied to Khan’s directive. The letters decried Khan’s imprisonment and recent disqualifications of PTI lawmakers, which the party views as part of a campaign to undermine democracy.
Khan, a former prime minister, has been detained at Adiala Jail since August 2023, serving a sentence in a £190 million corruption case. He also faces trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act linked to violent protests on May 9, 2023, following his arrest. Those events, which saw attacks on military and government sites, remain a flashpoint, with PTI alleging a state-orchestrated crackdown.
“I can no longer in good conscience serve on Senate committees when the state is the foremost violator of the very rights and protections these committees are meant to safeguard,” Swati wrote in his letter, resigning from panels on the cabinet secretariat, economic affairs, law and justice, national health services, and rules of procedure.
He accused authorities of “systematically dismantling” democracy, pointing to a “deeply flawed judgment” by Justice Qazi Faez Isa that stripped PTI of its election symbol, the cricket bat, and alleged manipulation of vote-tallying forms in the 2024 elections. “This resignation is an act of protest,” Swati wrote, urging parliamentarians and citizens to speak out “before the space for dissent is completely extinguished.”
Khanzada and Dost Muhammad echoed the sentiment, writing, “The deliberate denial of justice has compelled both [Khan] and myself to take this step as an expression of protest.” Khanzada quit committees on overseas Pakistanis, foreign affairs, finance, commerce, and privatization, while Dost Muhammad left those on government assurances, human rights, food security, poverty alleviation, and railways.
Afridi, Buppi, Mohmand, and Falak Naz also cited Khan’s orders. Mohmand, who resigned from panels on parliamentary affairs, human rights, health, water resources, and IT, criticized the state for blocking “lawful avenues” for dissent, referencing the 26th Constitutional Amendment. Afridi stepped down from commerce, education, inter-provincial coordination, industry, and power committees. Buppi left industry, poverty alleviation, religious affairs, defense production, and broadcasting panels. Falak Naz exited education, economic affairs, climate change, and less-developed areas committees.
The resignations follow a similar move in the National Assembly, where PTI said 30 lawmakers quit committee roles last month, though the assembly secretariat confirmed only 20. Those exits were spurred by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s disqualification of PTI members in July and August over their alleged roles in the May 9 riots. The commission’s rulings, combined with the loss of PTI’s election symbol, have forced the party to contest polls under makeshift arrangements, weakening its parliamentary clout.
Thursday’s resignations, coming two weeks after the lower house’s, signal a coordinated PTI strategy to disengage from legislative bodies. By vacating oversight roles, the party risks ceding influence to the ruling coalition of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party. Yet the move aims to rally public support by casting PTI as a principled opposition resisting an allegedly illegitimate government.
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