Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) threat of no-confidence, the federal government hastily accepted the resignations of 35 MNAs of Tehreek-e-Insaf and Awami Muslim League. However, analysts say that in order to save the government, the speaker will have to accept the resignations of all the members of the PTI assembly.
The power struggle between the government and the opposition parties is heading towards a decisive stage, meanwhile Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignation of 35 members of the lower house of parliament on Tuesday night. The resignations of the members of the assembly were accepted, including members of Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Awami Muslim League.
After the approval of the resignations by the Speaker National Assembly, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also issued a notification to de-notify the resigned MNAs.
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De-notified MNAs Murad Saeed, Umar Ayub Khan, Asad Qaiser, Parvez Khattak, Imran Khattak, Shehryar Afridi, All Amin Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri, Raja Khurram Shehzad Nawaz, Ali Nawaz Awan, Asad Umar, Sadaqat Ali Khan, Ghulam. Abbas, Sarwar Khan, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Mansoor Hayat Khan, Fawad Ahmed, Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel, Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mehmood, Malik Muhammad Aamir Dogar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Zartaj Gul, Faheem Khan, Saifur Rehman, Muhammad Alamgir Khan, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Aftab Hussain Siddique, Attaullah, Aftab Jahangir, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Muhammad Najeeb Haroon and Qasim Khan Suri are included.
Similarly, two PTI MLAs, Alia Hamza Malik and Kanwal Shuzab, who were elected on the reserved seats, have also been de-notified. Along with 34 PTI legislators, Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has also been de-notified by the ECP.
The move by Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf to accept the resignations of PTI and Awam Muslim League came when two days ago Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaf had indicated his return to the National Assembly.
Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry thanked Speaker National Assembly and shared a message on social networking website Twitter, writing that “Thank you for accepting our resignation, but until you accept 70 more resignations, Leader of Opposition and The positions of the parliamentary party have come to Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Public Accounts Committee is also the right of Tehreek-e-Insaf. It is hoped that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will give a decision in this regard in our pending case.
However, analysts have termed this initiative of the federal government as an ax on its feet. He says that Tehreek-e-Insaf was returning to the Assembly so that the Leader of the Opposition could be replaced. Because Raja Riaz as an opposition leader is no less than a puppet leader of the opposition.
Analysts say accepting the resignations of 35 members will not make a difference as the resignations of 70 PTI MLAs are still pending with the Speaker. PTI can return to the assembly in this situation and remove Raja Riaz from the post of Leader of Opposition. If Raja Riaz is to be retained as Leader of Opposition, the Speaker will also have to accept the resignations of the remaining 70 members. Otherwise, if Tehreek-e-Insaf returns to the Assembly, three major posts will return to him, including the posts of Leader of Opposition, Chairman Public Accounts Committee and Parliamentary Party.