WEB DESK
National Assembly (NA) Speaker of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Thursday refused to accept the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers together as he insists that the resignations will be accepted only if the party members appear before him individually.
A PTI delegation met NA speaker at his chamber to discuss the verification of the resignations of the party lawmakers.
The delegation was headed by former NA speaker Asad Qaiser while other members included Qasim Suri, Amir Dogar, Amjad Niazi and Faheem Khan.
Later in a press conference in Islamabad, he claimed to have no like or dislike for any PTI member.
Accepting a resignation is a very difficult task and the ones accepted before were done in accordance with the Constitution, the speaker said.
Ashraf added that the Constitution clearly mentions that an MNA’s resignation must be written in his own handwriting.
“Doors for negotiations are never closed in politics, and we should resolve our matters by communication,” the speaker said.
Yesterday, NA speaker had given the last call to PTI lawmakers for verification of their resignations.
It was decided during a meeting presided by the speaker which was attended by federal ministers and a deputy speaker.
The meeting was briefed that the speaker has completed all legal requirements for verification of resignations and gave Thursday’s deadline to PTI legislators.
It is worth noting that several times, PTI MNAs skipped appearances before the NA Speaker Raja Parvaiz Ashraf to verify their resignations.
Earlier, the NA speaker decided to reinvite PTI MNAs in his chamber one by one in person for verification of their resignations in pursuance of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in NA, 2007.
However, PTI insisted on the procedure and demands acceptance of tendered resignations by its lawmakers all at once, without in person appearance.
The decision of not heading to the assembly was taken during a huddle in which PTI Vice President Shah Mahmood Qureshi lamented how Raja Pervez Ashraf ‘ignored’ his letter – sent earlier this month – to immediately accept their resignations.
The opposition party legislators were earlier invited by the speaker from June 6 to 10 for verification of their resignations, but none of them had turned up.
