PTI leader Farrukh Habib said on Sunday that his party’s MNAs would visit the National Assembly on Wednesday for the acceptance of their resignations as members of the lower house of parliament.
The PTI had announced mass resignations from the NA in April this year, a day after party chief Imran Khan’s ouster as the prime minister through a no-confidence vote and shortly before Shehbaz Sharif was elected as his successor.
Then-NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri, in the capacity of the house’s acting speaker, had subsequently accepted the resignations of 123 PTI MNAs. However, incumbent Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf later decided to verify the resignations and eventually accepted the resignations of just 11 lawmakers on July 27, with the PTI taking an exception to the acceptance of a select few resignations.
Despite his insistence that he can only accept resignations that are “voluntary and authentic,” Ashraf called the party’s legislators to appear before him on Thursday to have their resignations verified.
Shibli Faraz, a PTI senator, made the announcement the same day, nevertheless, that the party will approach the Supreme Court rather than the speaker to accept the widespread resignations.
Speaking to the media in Faisalabad today, Habib broke from this position by saying, “We are going to the National Assembly on Wednesday to get our resignations approved.”
He maintained that all PTI lawmakers had submitted their resignations in writing.
“But they accepted just 11 resignations on the basis of mala fide [intentions],” he went on to say, adding, “Now accept our resignation. Why are they being evasive?”
The PTI leader also remarked that this matter was also a “test for the Election Commission of Pakistan”.
