ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Friday submitted resignations of its 34 MNAs to the National Assembly Secretariat and planned to replicate the process in the provincial assemblies except that of Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa assembly.
PTI leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Arif Alvi and Shireen Mazari submitted the resignations of all 34 MNAs including Imran Khan.
The resignations have come as the PTI has been engaged in protests and sit-ins against the Nawaz government outside the Parliament over the alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.
The party had earlier decided to resign from all assemblies except the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, a province where it run the government.
“We had already given our resignations to our chairman, and now we have also completed the formal procedure of submitting them to the National Assembly speaker,” said PTI leader Murad Saeed shortly after the resignations were submitted.
“Our future course of action is clear: we demand free and fair elections in Pakistan, an independent election commission, accountability of those involved in electoral rigging, and the resignation of the prime minister,” said Saeed.
Speaking to media representatives after submitting the resignations, Qureshi said the 2013 general elections were not free and fair. He added that the party would take guidance from the Constitution, adding that the sit-in would not remain restricted to Islamabad.
“We will hold sit-ins in the other major cities as well,” the PTI leader said.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that decision of PTI legislators would be taken on Monday.
Ayaz Sadiq told a private TV channel that he had already left for the day when Qureshi delivered the letters of resignation to his office, but would open them and verify the contents on Monday, ultimately triggering by-elections unless they are withdrawn.
It is learnt that ECP would immediately announce bye-elections if resignations of PTI legislators are accepted by the Speaker of the National Assembly.