Qureshi says ‘govt wanted to stop trust vote via PTI MNAs denotification’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that the federal government wanted to block the passage of trust vote by issuing denotification order of the Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

While talking to ARY News, Shah Mahmood Qureshi reacted to the denotification order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) regarding 35 MNAs.

He termed the ECP’s decision as a ‘selection’ for approving the resignations. He urged the authorities to collectively approve the resignations.

“The incumbent government is playing with the whole governance system. The decision came at a time when PTI was consulting to return to the National Assembly (NA). We will now consult to devise our next strategy.”

He said that the ECP is continuously losing its reputation. Qureshi said that the election commission was bound to follow the court order regarding the verification of each MNA separately.

READ: RANA SANAULLAH SAYS ‘DENOTIFICATION OF PTI MNAS TO REDUCE POLITICAL TURMOIL’

The PTI vice chairman said that they had decided to write a letter to the NA speaker for removing Raja Riaz from the opposition leader’s slot. “We also asked the speaker to fix a meeting regarding the MNAs resignations but he wrote back to verify the resignations in separate meetings.”

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the federal government took the decision to stop the trust vote.

MNAs denotification by ECP

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has denotified more Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after the NA speaker accepted their resignations.

After the announcement of PTI MNAs’ return to the National Assembly, the federal government made a move to accept their resignations in an apparent bid to reduce the number of opposition lawmakers.

READ: FAWAD CHAUDHRY HOPES ‘KP GOVERNOR WON’T WASTE TIME IN DISSOLVING ASSEMBLY’

At the request of NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denotified 35 more MNAs including top PTI leaders.

Prior to the latest move, the NA speaker put a condition to separately verify the resignations of the PTI lawmakers, however, the opposition party was urging Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to collectively approve the resignations.

In July last year, NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had accepted the resignations of 11 PTI MNAs.