Hours after rejecting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s return to the National Assembly, Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf has urged all political parties to work for national stability and promote unity and harmony in the country. .
Ashraf’s remarks came in a video statement after a PTI delegation led by Aamir Dogar visited his office in Islamabad on Monday. The PTI had demanded that their resignations be withdrawn and they be allowed to reclaim their seats in the legislature.
In the meeting, the Speaker of the National Assembly ruled out the possibility of PTI leaders returning to the Legislative Assembly as their resignations had been accepted.
However, in the video statement, Ashraf said that every problem can be solved.
سپیکر قومی اسمبلی راجہ پرویز اشرف کا پی ٹی آئی کے استعفوں کے حوالے سے بیان 1/3 pic.twitter.com/mr74XvSBYp
— National Assembly of 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) February 27, 2023
The Speaker of the National Assembly confirmed that he had received a written note from the PTI delegation, which he would review with his legal department before allowing the former MLA to return to the House. Go or not.
He said that he urged all political parties to work for stability and mutual harmony for the betterment of the country.
سپیکر قومی اسمبلی راجہ پرویز اشرف کا پی ٹی آئی کے استعفوں کے حوالے سے بیان 3/3 pic.twitter.com/3Ac51NvFby
— National Assembly of 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) February 28, 2023
“We should hold each other’s hands and take our country out of the current crisis,” he maintained, adding that he hopes to play a positive role and contribute to the betterment of the country.
Earlier in the video, the Speaker said what he had discussed with the PTI delegation, including the party’s request to withdraw the resignations and return to the National Assembly. However, he reminded them that their resignations were voluntary and were accepted after their repeated requests.
“A PTI delegation led by former NA Speaker met me on December 30 last year,” he said, adding that PTI leaders asked him to accept the resignation immediately. He said that he accepted his resignation on his continuous requests.
He said that despite the Speaker’s reminder, Monday’s delegation leaders claimed they had accepted his resignations “wrongly”. As a result, he went to court over the matter, he said.
The speaker also said that the PTI leaders told him that they had received instructions from the court that the Election Commission of Pakistan had withdrawn its notification. He said that is why he wanted to resume his duties in the National Assembly.
However, it remains to be seen how this development will affect the Speaker’s decision on the matter.
Story of resignation
In April last year, after PTI Chairman Imran Khan was removed from power by a no-confidence motion, the party’s legislators resigned en masse from the National Assembly.
At first, Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignations of only 11 MNAs. However, on January 17 and January 20, the resignations of 34 and 35 more PTI MNAs were accepted respectively.
Several MNAs subsequently withdrew their resignations and requested the Speaker not to accept them. However, on January 22, the Speaker of the National Assembly accepted the last batch of resignations.
Subsequently, 43 MNEs took their complaint to the Lahore High Court (LHC), which suspended the ECP orders on February 8.
Later, several other PTI MNAs approached the Lahore High Court for similar relief. However, the court directed the ECP to suspend the de-notification of PTI MNAs from Punjab only.
The election body had last Friday – as per the LHC’s order – suspended the de-notification of 32 PTI MNAs. Moreover, it also stopped the by-elections in these constituencies.
