Daily Times

PTI Secretary General Asad Umar Monday accused the Election Commission of becoming a part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and asked the social media so to suggest a symbol for the Commission. Asad passed these remarks after filing a petition with the Islamabad High Court – on behalf of the party – against the Commission’s decision to accept the resignations of 11 members of the National Assembly. “A petition has been submitted to the Islamabad High Court against the Election Commission for accepting the resignations of 11 members of the assembly of their choice,” he tweeted. “All members of the Tehreek-e-Insaf resigned in front of the entire country. All resignations should be accepted at the same time,” he stated. He said the ECP was vacating the seats ‘in a piecemeal manner’ for the benefit of the government. Earlier, speaking to media outside the IHC, he said, the PTI had approached the court against acceptance of resignations of 11 members. “On April 11, 125 of our people resigned on the floor of the assembly, and on April 13, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri accepted the resignation,” Umar said. He claimed that party members resigned as a result of the alleged foreign interference that led to the ouster of their party’s government at the centre. Asad said the youth using the social media should suggest a party symbol for the ECP as it has become a part of PDM. He accused the ECP of engaging in “illegal activity” and stated that the PTI refused to be a part of this conspiracy and thus resigned, and that the ECP accepted 11 resignations of its choice last week.

Last week, the ECP denotified 11 PTI MNAs following the approval of their resignations by NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. According to ECP, Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farrukh Habib, Ijaz Ahmad Shah, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari, Shandana Gulzar Khan have been de-notified. The action was taken after Speaker Ashraf accepted 11 resignations of PTI members under Article 64(1) of the Constitution of Pakistan. NA spokesperson said notification had also been issued in this regard. The announcement was made on the official Twitter handle of the National Assembly.

However, the PTI had claimed that Speaker’s Ashraf’s approval held no legal value. Asad Umar, prayed the court to expedite the acceptance of the resignations of all PTI NA members in the light of Article 64 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Article 64(1) reads, “A Member [Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)] may, by writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker or, as the case may be, the chairman resign his seat, and thereupon his seat shall become vacant.”

However, not a single PTI MNA appeared as they were barred by PTI Chairman Imran Khan from appearing before the speaker of what he called a ‘dummy’ assembly. PTI’s senior leader Fawad Chaudhry had said that there was no legal value of the approval of 11 PTI MNAs’ resignations, as former deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri had already accepted them. The PTI lawmakers had tendered their resignations en masse after Imran Khan’s government was ousted through a no-confidence motion In April. Later, the then deputy speaker Qasim Suri accepted the resignations and issued a notification in this regard.