Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers in National Assembly on Friday reminded the NA Speaker and asked to recall that it was he who 'begged' them to get their salaries after they stayed away from parliament in 2014 in connection with anti-government sit-ins for about eight months. Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has warned that the PTI MNAs who have boycotted the session until the Supreme Court decides the Panama leaks case, will not be given salaries as they are not attending the sessions.
PTI MNA Murad Saeed said, "It was 'this very Ayaz Sadiq' who dispatched salaries to PTI lawmakers when they did not attend the parliament for about 8 months back in 2014 during the sit-in against Sharif administration. "We didn't draw the 8 month salaries despite insistence by the government and instead deposited all the salaries in the PM's Flood Relief Fund and now the Speaker must know that we're not here for drawing salaries", he added.
In the same breath, he said that the Speaker must know that PTI is an ideological political party and they are not in the parliament for drawing salaries, adding the boycott of the parliament proceedings will continue till accountability of the Prime Minister.
He clarified that the reason PTI has boycotted the NA sessions is that the Prime Minister is facing corruption allegations and there is no point to attend the session as long as "Nawaz Sharif is the leader of the House." Another PTI MNA, Engineer Dawar Khan Kundi told Business Recorder that the Speaker should immediately proceed with his decision to stop their salaries, as there is no point to get the salaries without attending the proceedings of the House. A treasury lawmaker, who wished not to be named, advised the NA Speaker not to make the issue complicated any further, adding both sides should show some political maturity as confrontation is no solution to the problem, he said.