\u2022 Calls on lawmakers to quit parliamentary bodies, including PAC; party\u2019s political committee also endorses his opinion
\n\u2022 Jailed founder refuses to accept Salman Akram Raja\u2019s resignation; throws his weight behind Achakzai as potential replacement for NA opposition leader<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD: Changing its mind once again, the PTI has decided to boycott the upcoming by-elections for national and provincial assemblies, in line with the opinion of its incarcerated leader, Imran Khan.<\/p>\n
The decision was taken by the party\u2019s political committee, which met to consider Mr Khan\u2019s input following a meeting with his legal team at Adiala Jail on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Mr Khan\u2019s message was relayed to the media by his sister, Aleema Khan, who also met Mr Khan in prison.<\/p>\n
She was flanked by PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja \u2014 whose resignation was reportedly turned down by the incarcerated former PM.<\/p>\n
Denying reports of a bitter exchange with Mr Raja, she said the lawyer was \u201clike family\u201d to them. She said her brother had asked the party\u2019s political committee to hold another meeting on the by-election issue based on his instructions, and report back to him.<\/p>\n
Later on Tuesday night, PTI MNA Amir Dogar confirmed that the political committee had endorsed Imran Khan\u2019s opinion on not contesting by-elections, adding that party lawmakers would also start quitting parliamentary bodies soon.<\/p>\n
Imran\u2019s view<\/p>\n
Talking about nominations to appoint new opposition leaders in the National Assembly and Senate, Salman Akram Raja said that for them, Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz were still the opposition leaders, adding that they were still contesting their cases and would fulfil all legal requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is a need after that, then the name that Imran has repeated today for the NA opposition leader is that of Mehmood Khan Achakzai,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Raja explained that Imran gave his \u201cclear directions\u201d about participating in the by-polls after listening to all those allowed to meet him today, including his sisters.<\/p>\n
A day earlier, the party\u2019s political committee had voted 12-9 to take part in the by-elections. Information Secretary Sheikh Waqqas Akram had even tweeted that candidates would be given Sunni Ittehad Council tickets to avoid the chances of their being declared \u2018independents\u2019.<\/p>\n
According to insiders, Sheikh Waqqas Akram, Salman Akram Raja, SIC leader Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Arif Alvi, Sajjad Burki, ex-GB CM Khalid Khursheed and some others were against the decision to take part in by-polls, while those in favour included Aliya Hamza, Sanaullah Mastikhel, Aamir Dogar, Farhat Abbas and others.<\/p>\n
Talking to Dawn, former NA speaker Asad Qaiser confirmed that in Imran Khan\u2019s opinion, the party should not go into by elections, and that its lawmakers should leave all parliamentary standing committees, including the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).<\/p>\n
\u201cParliament has already been made a rubber stamp, as the voice of the opposition members has been suppressed by not telecasting their remarks on the floor of the house. Secondly, after the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment, courts have come under immense pressure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Qaiser said that the jailed PTI founder had given his opinion, and asked the party\u2019s political committee to review its decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cImran Khan was of the view that the government will not let the PTI candidate to win by-elections\u2026 [and] if [we] take part in the elections, it will legitimise the government\u2019s illegal action of de-seating PTI legislators,\u201d he said. He, however, said the PTI will continue its street protests and continue to approach the courts to seek justice.<\/p>\n
When contacted, Mustafa Nawaz Khaokhar \u2013 who is part of the Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan opposition alliance alongside the PTI \u2013 said there seemed to be two opinions in the party regarding by-elections, one suggesting that it should not legitimise the de-seating of its lawmakers, while the other was opposed to ceding political space.<\/p>\n
He agreed that this was causing a visible rift in the PTI\u2019s ranks, which had created disappointment in the party workers.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the situation, political analyst Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said it was quite unfortunate that the decision taken by the party\u2019s political committee to contest by-elections was reversed by jailed founder Imran Khan.<\/p>\n
The PTI is more of a \u2018one-man show\u2019 than any other political party, he noted.<\/p>\n
He also noted with irony that the party had decided, once again, to leave all parliamentary committees, especially the PAC. \u201cThis is the same act it committed when it left the National Assembly and ceded all provinces, where it was ruling, one by one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad and Mansoor Malik in Lahore also contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022 Calls on lawmakers to quit parliamentary bodies, including PAC; party\u2019s political committee also endorses his opinion \u2022 Jailed founder refuses to accept Salman Akram Raja\u2019s resignation; throws his weight behind Achakzai as potential replacement for NA opposition leader ISLAMABAD: Changing its mind once again, the PTI has decided to boycott the upcoming by-elections for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11609,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions\/11609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}