‘United we resign!’

Lawmaker Gulzar’s spokesman denies Gulzar is rallying against Khan’s decision to tender resignations of PTI’s members in National Assembly

National Assembly (NA) member Gulzar Khan’s spokesman has denied reports regarding the formation of a forward bloc in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf against party Chairman Imran Khan’s direction to PTI lawmakers in NA to tender resignations.

The spokesman said that Gulzar is sick for the past one week and is at home. He said all party lawmakers have complete confidence in Khan’s leadership.

“Such reports are being disseminated by anti-PTI forces who are bent upon developing a breach in the party ranks,” he maintained.

A local newspaper reported Sunday that fissures are developing in PTI ranks as at least 13 members of National Assembly (NA) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) opposed party Chairman Imran Khan’s decision of resigning from the NA and have formed a group led by MNA Gulzar Khan.

According to the report, the meeting of the dissident MNAs was held after behind-the-scenes deliberation following PTI Core Committee’s statement about the resignation of its lawmakers.

“We had told Khan that we would resign only if the KP chief minister, ministers and MPAs resigned. We will not quit our seats without them,” the paper quoted a dissident as saying. He added that the party leadership’s attempt to save their government in KP and at the same time asking MNAs to resign, smacked of opportunism. “There is no principle here,” the lawmaker said.

PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who submitted resignations of PTI parliamentarians to National Assembly Secretariat, said he had not counted how many of the 34 party lawmakers have resigned, but added that two or three MNAs were out of the country and would submit their resignations upon returning.

A party leader said only three MNAs from KP have so far not submitted their resignations and they had been asked to furnish them as soon as possible.

The report claimed that the PTI had submitted 17 resignations, some addressed to the chairman of the party, rather than the Speaker of National Assembly.

Another lawmaker said the decision to quit the NA was arbitrary and had been made without consulting the party’s legislators. “We have been pushed into a blind alley,” the lawmaker said.

“Even if we resign and our resignations are accepted, what next?” the party legislator wondered. “Nobody seems to have an answer to this,” he said, adding that the question was raised at the party’s core committee meeting too.