Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Tuesday expelled its two members of the NWFP assembly including a provincial minister for sports and culture for violating party discipline and voting for other candidates than the party nominees in the last Senate elections held on March 6.
Announcing decision of the probe committee of JI, General Secretary NWFP chapter Mushtaq Ahmad stripped them of the basic membership of both members.
Speaker NWFP Assembly, Bakht Jehan Khan has declared both assembly seats vacant after the party leadership forwarded signed resignations of the expelled JI MPA and a provincial minister.
Flanked by other members of the probe committee including Hakeem Abdul Waheed and Dr Iqbal Khalil, he said the decision to expel them was recommended by the probe committee constituted by party leadership after Senate elections during which MMA had lost its two seats despite a clear majority.
He said that the inquiry committee will continue its investigation and would take further action against those members who were found involved horse-trading and in violation of party discipline in Senate polls.
The expelled minister Raja Faisal Zaman, hails from Hazara Division and was elected an independent MPA from PF-49 Haripur is the son of Senior Leaguer and former Chief Minister Raja Sikandar Zaman, joined the MMA before the formation of the provincial cabinet, while MPA Malik Hayat Khan, hails from JI stronghold Dir was elected as MPA from PF-93 on MMA ticket.
"Jamaat was an ideological party and every decision was being taken on the basis of party manifesto," he said and adding that the party leadership had decided to expel both the members for violating the party disciplines and manifesto.
On the other hand the expelled MPA, Malik Hayat Khan, termed his resignation as fake and called the action taken by them is against the rules of business of the provincial assembly.
"I will challenge the speaker's notification," Khan has reportedly told some journalists. He said he had neither presented his resignation in written form nor signed it.
However, the provincial minister Raja Faisal Zaman refused to comment.
It is worth mentioning the JI, known as the most disciplined and organised religious political party and a major component of the ruling religio-political alliance MMA in the NWFP is has been skaken by the severe differences in its ranks after it suspended its 10 top office-bearers including son of the central amir Asif Luqmaan Qazi for using money during local bodies elections last year.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) another component party of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had already taken similar action and had expelled its four MPAs including two women on similar charges on March 25.
After their resignations announced by the NWFP Assembly Speaker they all termed the resignations as fake and challenged it in the Peshawar High Court.
Their cases are still pending before the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the court had stopped the Election Commission from any adverse action on the two men PMAs till the final decision in their case.