PTI MNAs fate hangs by a thread

Islamabad
As Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are apparently showing no interest in motions against eligibility of the members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) but numerical strength of both the parties in the National Assembly would continue to serve as hanging sword for the PTI lawmakers until final decision was taken in this respect.
National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Wednesday admitted for debate two identical motions of MQM and JUI-F which invoked Article 64 of the Constitution to seek removal of the PTI legislators from their seats. Now the lower house would hold debate next week and voting is likely to be done to obtain opinion from the members on this issue.
Clause (2) of Article 64 of the Constitution says: “A house may declare the seat of a member vacant if, without leave of the house, he remains absent for forty consecutive days of its sittings.”
The representatives of PML-N and PPP told this correspondent that their leadership would take decision about motions challenging eligibility of the PTI members in next a few days.
However, the PTI leader categorically stated that they would not approach PML-N and PPP to avoid disqualification of its members.
Talking to ‘The News’, PTI leader Asad Omar said when they were staging protest sit-in both PML-N and PPP had been insisting them on coming to Parliament.
“Now it is up to PML-N and PPP to decide what to do when voting would be done in the National Assembly regarding motions against our members. But we will not approach any of the party because we are ready to face any kind of political challenge,” he said.
He said when they were away from the National Assembly, everyone was insisting them on their return and now as they had become part of the lower house, the political parties had moved motions against them.
He said: “When it comes to the principles, we will make no compromise and we are also ready to lose our seats. We don’t want to stick to the National Assembly seats because principles based politics is more important to us.”
To a question, he said it was too early to comment whether they would participate in the by-elections if their members were disqualified from the National Assembly.
PML-N MNA Shaikh Rohail Asghar told ‘The News’ that his party had yet not decided whether to support or oppose the motions in the National Assembly.
To a question, he said it was true that PML-N had been insisting PTI on returning to the National Assembly but the MQM and JUI-F had also raised legal and constitutional points in their motions against the PTI members.
Replying to another question, he said submission of motions against the PTI members by MQM and JUI-F was in line with the Constitution and the democratic norms and traditions because no member could remain absent from the House for more than 40 days.
When contacted, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani said his party believed in the political reconciliation but the issue of motions against the PTI members was constitutional because no member could remain absent from the House for more than 40 days. To a question, he said PPP would discuss the issue but he personally thought that the political parties should continue to play their role in strengthening the democratic process in the country.