PTI asks NA speaker to accept resignations of all MNAs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has written a letter to NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, formally asking him to accept all its MNAs’ resignations and sought time from him in this connection next week.

On the behalf of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and in his own capacity as Vice-Chairman of the party, Shah Mehmood Qureshi wrote the letter to the NA speaker Thursday. He said, “We once again, formally, call upon you to accept the remaining resignations of members of the National Assembly, belonging to our party without any further delay or excuse.”

He accused the NA speaker of using his office as custodian of the House for partisan reasons and to provide political advantage to the incumbent government by not accepting all the 123 resignations of PTI members. And, he only had accepted selectively 11 resignations on July 28.

Citing the process, Qureshi claimed the then deputy speaker Qasim Suri had accepted all the resignations on April 13 and a notification was also issued by the secretary NA for publication in the Official Gazette. He narrated how he had announced after approval and agreement of all PTI MNAs on the floor of the assembly on April 11, following which the due process was adopted.

Qureshi wrote that although there was no need for any further action from their side, especially given the consistent pubic position taken by the party leadership and the individual members of parliament in respect of their resignations letters.

“We could agree a time with you during the next week when we come to the NA and re-confirm resignations tendered by our members of NA. We hope that you will not seek to delay this matter any further,” he wrote to the speaker. He also wrote that the proceedings of the National Assembly, including passage of key legislations in the absence of the largest and most popular party of the country from the floor of the NA, are a question mark on the legitimacy of actions of this current incomplete assembly.

“We firmly believe that free and fair general elections are the only way to restore the public faith in the democratic process in Pakistan and to uphold the mandate and sanctity of the Parliament,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, SVP PTI Dr Shireen Mazari also took to her Twitter account to write that the ‘imported government’ and NA speaker

were playing politics and deliberately causing confusion on resignations of PTI MNAs, as none of them received any pay after mid-April.

Former finance minister and PTI Senator Shaukat Tarin in a message on social media said, “The growth rate of large scale manufacturing has also reached negative. Large scale manufacturing is showing negative growth of 7.75% annually in October 2022 while it was showing an annual growth of 10.7% in March 2022. Turnaround of 18.5% leads to massive unemployment”.

Shaukat Tarin wrote the overall GDP growth rate this year was negative and compared to the last year’s growth rate of 6 percent. He said this is a complete economic decline and now the time has come for elections.