Islamabad:
PTI’s decision to disconnect from the parliamentary process expanded to the Senate this week, when the senators backed by the party began to resign the permanent committees in line with the directives issued by the founder of the Imran Khan party.
After the departure of several PTI legislators of the National Assembly committees last week, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi confirmed her resignation of five permanent committees of the Senate, including commerce, industries and production, education, energy and interprovincial coordination.
Speaking about the decision, Senator Afridi declared that he was renouncing the instructions of the party’s founder. “I am renouncing the memberships of my committee in accordance with the board issued by the founder of the party,” he said in a brief statement.
He was joined by the leader of the PTI and former Federal Minister, Senator Azam Khan Swati, who also renounced five Senate committees: cabinet, economic issues, health, law and justice, and rules and procedures.
In a strongly written statement, Swati described the movement as a protest against the existing parliamentary system. “These resignations are destined to register our opposition to a system that has lost its ability to defend the constitutional order and the rule of law,” he said.
Swati added that he had presented his resignation to the parliamentary leader of PTI in the Senate, Senator Ali Zafar, who would send them to the president of the Senate.
The resignations follow a clear directive issued by the founder of PTI Imran Khan only one day before, instructing all senators affiliated with PTI to renounce their respective roles of the committee.
The measure is widely seen as part of the broader political strategy of the party to indicate that its rejection of what it states is a manipulated and illegitimate parliamentary configuration.
The resignations of the Senate are found immediately after a similar exodus in the National Assembly, where the party began its withdrawal from the committees last month.
The first important resignation of Junaid Akbar, who resigned as president of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). His departure was soon followed by a wave of resignations presented by the legislators of PTI, with President Barríscar Ali Khan formally delivering 18 resignations to the office of the president of the National Assembly.
Information by PTI Sheikh Waqas Akram’s secretary also resigned from the PAC and the Permanent Information Committee, reinforcing the position of the party that would no longer participate in parliamentary businesses.
