Islamabad, April 21 (Representative) National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced that they will start verifying the resignations of 123 members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) by calling them individually or in small groups over the next few days, Dawn reported on Thursday. This step was announced after about two dozen MNAs from the PTI approached him seeking a meeting to clarify their stance. Sources in the NA Secretariat confirmed that a majority of the resignations submitted by the PTI MNAs were not handwritten and had a similar text printed on the PTI’s letterhead. They said the secretariat staff also had doubts over the signatures of some members as these were not matching with those on the assembly’s roll.
Reports said that at least 25 PTI MNAs had separately written to Mr Ashraf, requesting for an appointment to explain the circumstances under which they had to submit the resignations. The decision to resign en mass from the assembly had been taken at the PTI’s parliamentary party meeting, chaired by Imran Khan, and it was announced by PTI vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the floor of the assembly just minutes before PM’s election on April 11. Former deputy speaker Qasim Suri, who was then functioning as the acting speaker, immediately accepted the resignations and directed the NA Secretariat to issue a notification. On April 14, the PTI had through social media released the NA Secretariat’s notification declaring that 123 party MNAs “resigned from their seats by writing under their hand” to the speaker. The notification, signed by NA Secretary Tahir Hussain, had declared that after submission of the resignations their seats had become vacant in terms of Article 64(1) of the Constitution, with effect from April 11.
Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, who was the candidate for the PTI-led coalition for the post of Punjab chief minister, acted swiftly and send a reference against 26 PTI MPAs to the ECP to declare their defection since they had voted for PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz in violation of their party discipline. The PTI and PML-Q believe that by declaring the 26 MPAs’ defection they will be able to dent the other’s numbers to compete for the chief minister’s election in the assembly. Both parties are making last-ditch effort to get the PTI dissidents defected by the ECP to make the election of PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz null and void and go for a “run-off” election to win the province’s chief executive slot by a simple majority.