LAHORE- Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed on Wednesday submitted resignations of 28 MPAs of the party to the Punjab Assembly Secretariat.
However, two PTI MPAs, Nighat Intisar Bhatti and Jahanzaib Kichi, have not submitted their resignations while Mehmoodur Rasheed said the two lawmakers were on the way and they would also submit their resignations soon.
According to the assembly sources, PA Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal would not accept the resignations of PTI MPAs until he seeks personal confirmation from the legislatures concerned. He would wait for the outcome of the ongoing dialogue between government and the PTI for few days.
After handing over the resignations to the PA secretary, Rasheed while addressing media representatives said he and his party colleagues were resigning from the house as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had come into power as a result of rigging in May 2013 elections. He further said that the federal and provincial governments had failed to deliver on their promises and PTI MPAs from Punjab were resigning as per party policy.
PTI MNAs had already submitted their resignations to the National Assembly on Friday in a bid to compel Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign from his post. The party is protesting and staging sit-ins in Islamabad against alleged rigging in the general elections with the major demand of the resignation of the PM.
Flanked by MPAs including Sabtain Khan, Dr Murad Raas, Ahmed Ali, Sadia Sohail and others, Rasheed told the media that they had exploited all the constitutional ways but they could not get justice. He said the masses had voted for ideology of Imran Khan so following the policy of the party, they had submitted their resignations.
The PTI leader said the unethical, unlawful and undemocratic government had to surrender sooner or later. He said if someone was thinking to run the system without PTI, he was wrong. He said every election was rigged in the past and the Election Commission had become a puppet.
Rasheed said for the first time in the country’s history, Imran Khan had announced war against the rigging which would be fought till its logical end. He said his party chief had showed tolerance to the possible end, but the government was showing stubbornness. He said Imran had given call of long march in May but the rulers did not take it seriously rather they made mockery of the issue.
He said the PM having fake mandate should resign otherwise the second phase of the protest would be very difficult for him. He also criticised bad governance and poor performance the Punjab government. He said despite court orders, the police was not registering FIR of ‘state terrorism’. He said the Punjab government even did not provide portable water to the masses. He said during the last eight months, rates of the electricity have been doubled and the inflation has increased by 100 percent and the people were forced to commit suicide.
He told that instead of concentrating on the education and health, the rulers have more interest in the metro bus projects just to make money.
He said due to unwise projects of the CM, the province was under debt of around Rs500 billion.