Daily Times

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf appeared divided on the issues of en masse resignations as various leaders issued conflicting statements on the matter.

PTI leader and former minister for information Fawad Chaudhry Sunday announced that his party members would resign from the National Assembly on Monday (today) if the nomination of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif for the office of prime minister was accepted. Speaking to journalists in Islamabad Fawad said Imran Khan chaired a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) in Bani Gala where he reiterated that his ouster was part of a regime-change operation backed by foreign powers. He expressed his regret and said it would be unfortunate to impose a “foreign, selected, and imported government and on top of that, make Shehbaz Sharif the head of the government.

He informed journalists that during the meeting, the party’s core committee said all PTI members should resign from the assemblies. “We will start off by resigning from the National Assembly,” he said. “And if Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers are accepted, then we will tender our resignations on Monday.”

Shortly afterwards, however, the NA Secretariat rejected PTI’s objections and went ahead with accepting Shehbaz’s nomination.

He further said a parliamentary party meeting had also been called, adding that most of the PTI members from the assemblies have already submitted their resignation to the party chairman.

However, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday clarified that the party has yet to decide on resigning from the National Assembly, negating fellow party leader Fawad Chaudhry’s claims.

During his appearance on a private TV channel, Qureshi said, “The party’s core committee had a meeting under Imran Khan’s chairmanship.” He said that apart from finalising his name as PTI’s candidate for prime minister’s election opposite Shehbaz Sharif, it was also discussed if the party should remain in the National Assembly in the current circumstances.

“There was a discussion on this issue, but a final decision was not taken. The former prime minister decided to call a meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee for Monday at 12pm. The opinion of those who are standing by him in these tough times will be sought. A final decision will be taken after that meeting.”

When asked what the dominating opinion regarding the resignations in the party was, Qureshi said: “Whatever Imran Khan wants will happen. He will take the decision and whatever the decision is, will be accepted by all.

“However, ours is a democratic party and Imran Khan listens to everyone’s opinion and then decides. In my personal opinion, and from what I’ve gathered during discussions, a clear majority of the party members think that we should protest inside the assembly and also make contact with the public outside.”

He said, if Khan does decide to go for resignations, the party’s “ideological members would accept and tender resignations whenever asked for”.

Meanwhile, former minister of state for parliamentary affairs and PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan said that 95% of the members of the Parliament from PTI are against resigning from the assemblies. “While a resignation could be a political tool for any politician but resigning from the assembly at this moment of time means giving a free hand to the Opposition,” he said.