Leader of opposition, parliamentary head: PTI will ask NA speaker to appoint its members to key slots

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has decided to approach National Assembly speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf to ask him to appoint the leader of the opposition, parliamentary leader and Public Accounts Committee Chairman from their party.

While addressing a press conference after the conclusion of a party meeting, which was chaired by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, here on Tuesday, the former provincial minister said that the PTI was the biggest opposition party in the National Assembly since the resignations of their members were not accepted. “We have constituted a parliamentary committee under the leadership of PTI senior leader Pervaiz Khattak, which will take up the matter with the Speaker,” he added.

He said that soon after the appointments, they would initiate a process of removing the coalition government within a couple of weeks; “however, the final decision on returning to the National Assembly has not been finalised yet”. He maintained that after the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies, the party was entirely focused on sending the coalition federal government home.

He again offered the federal government to hold talks on electoral reforms, adding that if it does not show seriousness then we will topple the government. “We want the federal government to sit with us and discuss a constitutional framework for the general elections. Pakistan was facing an unprecedented economic crisis and it could only be fixed by ensuring economic stability in the country,” he added.

While rejecting the results of the local government elections in Sindh, the PTI leader alleged that the election results were deliberately delayed for manipulation. “The elections were merely a joke. State resources were used to threaten the voters; both the federal and the Sindh governments issued terrorist threats with the sole aim of keeping the voters away from the polling stations. Hence, the voter turnout was very low. Now the people would understand why the rulers resisted electronic voting machines (EVMs),” he added.

“The KP Chief Minister would soon send a letter to the KP Governor for the dissolution of the provincial assembly. I hope that the KP Governor would not wait for 48 hours and fulfil his duty by dissolving the provincial assembly,” he said.

Commenting on the names for an interim Punjab Chief Minister, Chaudhry said that the PTI has proposed candidates with clean credentials while the opposition was showing a non-serious attitude. “We know that it would be a difficult decision, but we request Nasir Khosa to reconsider his decision and accept the office of interim Punjab Chief Minister. PML-N leader Malik Ahmad has also endorsed the names proposed by the PTI,” he added.

“We ask the election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold the elections before Ramazan and the elections in Punjab and KP should be held within 90 days. If the federal government was dissolved then early general elections should be held before Ramazan, as well,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023