With PTI dissident Raja Riaz holding the parliamentary party leader’s position in the National Assembly, the PTI fears that he may decide to vote in favour of the prime minister if President Dr Arif Alvi asks Shehbaz Sharif to take the trust vote.

In a meeting with media persons at his Zaman Park residence, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said planning and consultations with party leaders as well as legal experts were afoot to strategise how PTI’s turncoats can be stopped from siding with the ruling coalition of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

Raja Riaz leads the group of PTI MNAs who did not tender their resignations when the party decided to quit the assembly in the aftermath of Imran Khan’s ouster as PM in last April.

Meanwhile reacting to the PTI’s move, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the government would “welcome back” PTI MNAs to the National Assembly if they were to return but maintained that any discussion over a caretaker setup can be held only once the mandated tenure of the government expires in August.

Sanaullah, while talking to a news channel regarding Imran’s comments, said: “Of course, we will welcome them [back] into the assembly as even when they were leaving, we had said it was an undemocratic decision.”

The interior minister asserted, “They (PTI MNAs) will have to withdraw their resignations for returning to the National Assembly and will have to come and sit in the assembly.”

He said that Imran will also have to submit a request to the speaker to become the leader of the opposition.

Sanaullah reiterated the federal government’s stance of holding general elections upon the expiry of its full five-year term. “When the tenure of the assemblies would end on Aug 16, 2023, he (Imran) will be part of the consultation as the leader of the opposition and then the decision of the caretaker would be made.”

Earlier on Dec 22 2022, National Assembly Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf took the stance that he would once again summon PTI lawmakers for the verification of their resignations, which have been lying pending with him despite the lapse of several months and repeated requests from the party leadership to accept them.

In a letter issued by the National Assembly Secretariat in response to PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the speaker referred to the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision that the speaker has to be satisfied regarding “genuineness and voluntary character of the resignation” before accepting them.

Speaker @RPAPPP shall again invite PTI MNAs for verification of their resignation in pursuance of Paragraph(b)of Sub-Rule(2)of Rule 43 of Rules of Procedure & Conduct of Business in NA, 2007.

NA Secretariat has written official letter to @SMQureshiPTI in response to his letter. pic.twitter.com/mhIEDqDekY

— National Assembly of 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) December 22, 2022

The response came a day after PTI MNAs decided to appear before the National Assembly speaker in person on December 22 to verify their resignations

As many as 123 lawmakers resigned en masse from the lower house of the parliament following the ouster of PTI chief Imran Khan in April this year.

Political pundits maintain that the PDM and its allied government are afraid of the popularity of Imran Khan and PTI that is why they are running away from the elections and the PTI chief.

Meanwhile, PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that they would contest the by-elections on these vacant seats, adding the reason of not participating in the polls would be told later.