ISLAMABAD: PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday clarified that the party has yet to decide on resigning from the National Assembly, negating fellow party leader Fawad Chaudhry’s claim made hours earlier that the party’s MNAs were to tender their resignations en masse on Monday.
Talking to a private TV channel, Qureshi said: “Today, the party’s core committee had a meeting under Imran Khan’s chairmanship.”
He said that apart from finalising his name as PTI’s candidate for prime minister’s election opposite Shehbaz Sharif, it was also discussed if the party should remain in the National Assembly in the current circumstances.
“There was a discussion on this issue, but a final decision was not taken. The former prime minister decided to call a meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee for Monday at 12pm. The opinion of those who are standing by him in these tough times will be sought. A final decision will be taken after that meeting.”
When asked what the dominating opinion regarding the resignations in the party was, Qureshi said: “Whatever Imran Khan wants will happen. He will take the decision and whatever the decision is, will be accepted by all.
“However, ours is a democratic party and Imran Khan listens to everyone’s opinion and then decides. In my personal opinion, and from what I’ve gathered during discussions, a clear majority of the party members think that we should protest inside the assembly and also make contact with the public outside.”
He said, if Khan does decide to go for resignations, the party’s “ideological members would accept and tender resignations whenever asked for”.
Chaudhry, in an afternoon press talk earlier, had announced that his party had decided to resign from the assembly, a day after former prime minister Imran Khan lost his government via a successful no-confidence move.
The decision to resign, he said, was tied up with the acceptance of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers for prime minister’s elections, to which the PTI had raised objections. In a later development, the NA Secretariat rejected the objections and accepted Shehbaz’s nomination.
Talking to the media in Islamabad with a host of other PTI leaders and officials, Chaudhry said a meeting of the PTI’s central core executive committee (CEC) was held in Bani Gala with Imran Khan where “the whole situation was analysed”.
He said the CEC recommended to Khan that the PTI should resign from the assemblies starting with the National Assembly. “If our objections on Shehbaz Sharif’s [nomination] papers are not addressed then we will resign tomorrow,” he said.
–Agencies
