WEB DESK
National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Thursday decided to summon Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers for verification of their resignations they tendered on April 11 following ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote.
The speaker has responded to the letter by PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi which he sent on December 15. The letter cited verdicts of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and Supreme Court (SC) regarding not accepting the resignations of the MNAs without verification.
It stated, “It has to be held that before accepting a resignation of a member, the Speaker has to satisfy himself regarding genuineness and voluntary character of the resignation.” It highlighted that the PTI lawmakers were earlier summoned from June 6 to 10 for the same but none of them appeared.
Hence, the speaker has once again decided to summon PTI MNAs one by one in his chamber for the legal exercise under Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007. Earlier in July, Ashraf accepted the resignations of only 11 PTI lawmakers.
The speaker accepted the resignations of several key PTI leaders, including former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, ex-interior minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah, ex-state minister for parliamentary affairs Ali Muhammad Khan and ex-state minister for information and broadcasting Farrukh Habib, under Article 64 (1) of the Constitution.
The other PTI lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted are Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakoor Shad and Shandana Gulzar Khan. Mazari and Shandana were elected on the reserved seats for women from Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), respectively.
