Going Round in Circles

Between the wrangling of the PDM govt, the PTI, the courts and the ECP, elections remain a question mark

Islamabad: Hanging in the balance for almost a year, the matter of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Members’ National Assembly resignations finally landed in the Lahore High Court, where a single bench had suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s de-notification order of those MNAs and also put on hold the by-elections scheduled in the concerned constituencies on March 16 and 19 respectively.

In its orders, the court suspended elections in the constituencies falling in the territorial limits of the Punjab, while there is no mention of the elections for the vacant MNAs seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Sindh, as a sizeable number of seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Sindh had also fallen vacant as a result of the PTI en masse resignations.

The court has also sought a reply from both, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Speaker of the National Assembly on the matter, and fixed March 7 for the hearing. While, the mainstream parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement component — the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — have decided not to contest the
by-elections for the currently vacant 65 or so National Assembly seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh,  legal and constitutional experts say, given the court’s order, there are bright chances of the PTI’s return to Parliament.

The Lahore High Court had already nullified the acceptance of another 43 PTI MNAs’ resignations by the Speaker National Assembly on February 8, suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s de-notification orders of those MNAs, and put on hold the by-elections in the concerned constituencies.

The PTI’s decision to return to the assemblies prompted the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government to hurriedly accept the resignations, which threw open the doors for a legal battle on the matter between the two sides.

Sources in the PTI informed Bol News that the party leadership had realised its mistake of resigning from Parliament, as in their absence the coalition government was granted an open field to enact legislation of their choice without any resistance from the opposition, since the current Leader of the Opposition is hand-in-glove with the government.

PTI central leader Riyaz Fatyana said that the shift in the PDM government’s policy towards the PTI MNAs resignations and its quick acceptance of them, came with the change of heart of the PTI, which decided to return to Parliament to get back the slots of Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from the ruling coalition’s handpicked Parliamentarians.  Fatyana, along with 42 PTI MNAs had moved the Lahore High Court against the acceptance of their resignations by the Speaker, despite the fact that they had informed the Speaker, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, that they wanted to return to Parliament.

Senior Vice-President of PTI Fawad Chaudhry asserted in a media chat that the PTI MPs would be returning to Parliament and would also get back the slots of Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from the PDM’s cronies.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentarians had resigned en masse from the National Assembly moments before the initiation of the no-trust motion exercise in April last year. The then Deputy Speaker, Qasim Suri, accepted the resignations and dispatched his acceptance for de-notification to the Election Commission of Pakistan, subsequently also tendering his resignation.

Later, the PDM coalition government elected Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as the new Speaker, who barred the Election Commission of Pakistan from de-notifying the PTI MPs, hence putting the acceptance of the 123 PTI MNAs’ resignations in limbo, on the ground that the government could not afford to hold elections in such a big number. The Speaker had also taken the plea that due process was not adopted while accepting the resignations and he would personally verify the resignations by meeting each and every MNA in person to ascertain whether the resignations were not the outcome of any duress or pressure.

The matter remained under dispute for well over 10 months, with the PTI demanding the acceptance of their resignations, and the NA Speaker, Raja Pervaiz Asharf remaining adamant about gaining a re-verification of the resignations through individual meetings with the MNAs to satisfy himself about the fact that the resignations were tendered without any pressure from the PTI leadership.

Inexplicably, on July 28, the Speaker National Assembly accepted the resignations of 11 PTI MNAs. The PTI agitated against his pick and choose actions, and demanded that all their resignations should be accepted at once. PTI central leaders alleged that the PDM coalition government had accepted the resignations of those PTI MPAs who had won their seats in their constituencies by a close margin, hoping to win the seats that fell vacant. But the PTI frustrated their plan as PTI Chairman Imran Khan was the candidate on eight out of the nine seats for which elections were held, and he returned victorious on seven, losing only one seat to a PPP candidate in Karachi. The other seat the PTI lost in Multan was the one from where the daughter of Shah Mahmood Qureshi contested elections, and lost to Ali Musa Gilani of the PPP.

The constituencies where elections are scheduled to be held on March 16 include: NA-04 Swat, NA-17 Haripur, NA-18 Swabi, NA-25 and NA-26 Nowshera, NA-32 Kohat, NA-38 Dera Ismail Khan, NA-43 Khyber, NA-52, 53, and NA-54 Islamabad, NA-57, 59, 60, 62 and NA-63 Rawalpindi, NA-67 Jhelum, NA-97 Bhakkar, NA-126 and NA-130 Lahore, NA-155 and NA-156 Multan, NA-191 Dera Ghazi Khan, NA-241, 242. 243, 244, 247, 250, 252, 254, and NA-256 Karachi and NA-265 Quetta.

The constituencies where the elections are scheduled to be held on March 19, but have now been put on hold on the directions of the Lahore High Court include: NA-02 Swat-I; NA-03 Swat-II; NA-05 Upper Dir-I; NA-06 Lower Dir-I; NA-07 Lower Dir-II; NA-08 Malakand Protected Area; NA-09 Buner; NA-16 Abbottabad-II;NA-19, Swabi-II; NA-20, Mardan-01; NA-28, Peshawar-II; NA-30, Peshawar-IV;NA 34, Karak;NA-40, Bajaur-I; NA-42, Mohmand;NA-44, Khyber-II;NA-61,Rawalpindi-V;NA-70, Gujrat-III;NA-87, Hafizabad-I; NA-93,Khushab-I;NA-96, Mianwali-II; NA-107,Faisalabad-VII;NA-109,Faisalabad-IX;NA-135, Lahore-XIII;NA-150, Khanewal-I; NA-152,Khanewal-II;NA-158, Multan-V;NA-164, Vehari-III; NA-165,Vehari-IV;NA-177,Rahim Yar Khan-III and NA-187, Layyah-I.