ISLAMABAD - They were waiting for Imran Khan to return to the house and instead found the MQM leaving the National Assembly hall – clearly a jolt for the democracy lovers.
Since Monday every legislator is looking for Imran Khan when the PTI members would enter the assembly. Khan was expected to end his boycott this week but has now given a new date to attend the assembly proceedings.
His spokesman Naeemul Haq said Imran Khan will not attend the assembly session until the election tribunal gives its ruling on NA-122 affair.
But on Wednesday, things turned out to be more dramatic when the MQM lawmakers announced to resign in protest against the ‘MQM specific’ operation in Karachi.
“Everybody knows this operation is an excuse to crush the MQM. It is not against the terrorists or outlaws,” senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar said as he along with other colleagues announced to quit the parliament.
For a while, the house was stunned although they had heard Altaf Hussain asking his team to resign late Tuesday night. The legislators from the rival parties thought this was just another ploy to pressurise the government to call off or neutralise the Karachi operation.
“Altaf Hussain has on a number of times said something and later backtracked. We felt they would do the same on the resignation issue and just use it as a pressure tactic,” a ruling party legislator said outside the parliament.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who heard the news in Belarus spoke to Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq before boarding a flight for Islamabad.
Back home, the MQM parliamentarians were clicking ‘selifies’ as they encircled Sadiq to verify their resignations. “The selifes mean we are voluntarily resigning for the rights of our voters. We are not happy with the situation in Karachi but we are happy to quit for the sake of the people whom we represent,” said MQM legislator Ali Raza Abidi.
Sloganeering also shook the parliament galleries when the MQM members walked to the Speaker’s chamber. They came out the same way vowing to protect the rights of the people of Karachi.
Earlier, MQM’s Farooq Sattar contended that the party was being denied political and democratic rights.
He explained that his party had raised the issue before Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah but got without any positive response. He claimed that PTI was being ‘assisted’ in Karachi.
The MQM leader asserted that the middle class was being deprived of its role in democracy. He believed the government would have acted differently had the PPP or the PML-N been targeted by the Rangers.
“The workers’ houses are being raided. There is no MQM activist who does not bear torture marks,” he said.
He said the MQM chief was being singled out as in the past PTI chief Imran Khan, PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Munawar Hassan and Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif had criticised the military and had issued insulting remarks. “But there was no action,” he said.
The PTI had until recently kept the ruling PML-N on the heels after resigning from the parliament. However, their resignations were never accepted as the PML-N thought it could damage the democracy.
Although the MQM’s vote-bank is mostly from urban Sindh, the move to quit the assemblies will still be a bitter pill for the democracy-lovers to swallow.
The NA Speaker took no time in seeking verification from the MQM members after they submitted their resignations prompting analysts to believe the party was facing discrimination as PTI legislators’ resignations were not accepted even after months and they were again attending the assembly proceedings.
Although, Imran is staying away from the parliamentary proceedings, he did not waste the opportunity to attack the MQM.
He tweeted that the PTI had resigned from the national and provincial assemblies to investigate the rigging in the general elections while MQM is doing it to save the ‘target killers’.
Among the resignations, PPP legislator Alizeh Iqbal Haider’s call to quit was hardly audible. She cited ‘personal reasons’ for her decision. Alizeh, who was elected on a reserved seat for women, is currently a spokesperson for PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Outside the parliament, the legislators from the PPP, the PML-N and other parties were confident that the MQM members would return to the parliament soon by withdrawing their resignations.