Pakistan National Assembly Speaker accepts resignations of 35 more PTI lawmakers

The PTI lawmakers had resigned from the lower house of the parliament after PTI chief Imran Khan's ouster in April 2022 but the National Assembly Speaker had accepted only 11 of the resignations then.

Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Friday accepted the resignations of 35 more Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers, days after accepting the resignations of nearly three dozen other PTI parliamentarians, the Dawn newspaper reported. The PTI lawmakers had resigned en masse from the lower house of the parliament after the party chief Imran Khan's ouster from the National Assembly in April 2022.

But, the National Assembly speaker Ashraf had accepted only 11 of the resignations, stating that the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification. After stalling the process for eight months, Ashraf on Tuesday, accepted the resignations of 34 more PTI lawmakers and of Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid as the party hinted it would "test" Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a confidence vote.

Now, the total number of PTI lawmakerswhose resignations have been accepted stands at 80, the Pakistan-based news portal said. The resignations of Haider Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mehboob Shah, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Junaid Akbar, Sher Akbar Khan , Ali Khan Jadoon, Engr Usman Khan Tarakai and Mujahid Ali, were accepted among others.

From the reserved seats, the resignations of Andaleeb Abbas, Asma Qadeer, Maleeka Ali Bokhari, and Munawara Bibi Baloch, were accepted. Earlier, The Express Tribune reported that PTI has decided to approach the Supreme Court as the resignations of PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly were not accepted by the speaker.

According to The Express Tribune, Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, advocate representing the PTI General Secretary Asad Umar, has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) decision for not giving a declaration that the acceptance of the resignations of 123 lawmakers by the then deputy speaker had come into effect and the speaker has no power concerning verification thereof. Furthermore, PTI had urged the IHC to make another declaration that the speaker is bound to forward the 123 accepted resignations of PTI members of the National Assembly to Pakistan's Election Commission to allow it to denotify all the 123 members and announce the schedule for the by-election. However, the petition was rejected by the then IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

While rejecting the petition, the Islamabad High Court Chief Justice referred to a 2015 judgement wherein it was said that for a resignation to come into effect under Article 64 of the Constitution, it was not enough that the member has written it under his or her name addressed to the speaker, as per The Express Tribune report. (ANI)

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