Report in the Nation, Dec 11, 2020
ISLAMABAD – The threat of en-bloc resignations by parliamentary opposition parties is not anything new in parliamentary history of Pakistan. The only significant difference of current political move by opposition factions is the ‘timing of tendering resignations’ from the parliament.
The previous government, in its government era, had faced en-masse resignation issues almost near the completion of their tenure. Taking advantage of the timing of threats, the ruling clique had not given much importance to it. Eleven opposition parties, under the umbrella of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), will collect resignations of their parties’ lawmakers till December 31. These resignations, after reaching any consensus by PDM, will be submitted to the respective assemblies.
In past parliamentary history, All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) had tendered resignations only one month before the completion of the tenure. This resignation threat, because of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rules , could not prove fatal as ‘bye-election cannot be held only sixty days before the completion of the tenure’
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), following the instructions of their former party’s supermo Altaf Hussain had submitted collective resignations before the government from National Assembly, Senate and Sindh Assembly. The then government had accepted the resignations, which is considered only one example of en-masse resignations.
Likewise, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members in the previous government era (PML-N government tenure) had submitted en-masse resignations. The then speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, in a verification process, had asked all the lawmakers of PTI to individually hold a meeting with him for the verification of their resignations. Later, the opposition party [current ruling party PTI] had taken back their resignation.
The verification of collective resignations by the speaker office has always been a counter attack by the government of any regime to prolong the process and settle the matter to avoid political crisis. The governments in the past parliamentary history successfully used these tactics.
In the current political situation, the government has clearly announced to hold bye-elections if the opposition really submit resignations to their respective/relevant assemblies. The bye-election on nearly half of the constituencies (494) would be a big challenge for the incumbent government.
Commenting on the current political situation related to the resignation threat, Former additional secretary of the National Assembly/ constitutional expert Tahir Hafi said the coalition partners use these tactics to pressurize the ruling party to achieve their goal. But in current political scenario, situation is bit different as eleven political factions from opposition are planning to tender resignation almost in the middle of the assemblies tenure, ”he said, mentioning that the timing for using this political stunt has much importance, which make it different from rest of resignations threats given in the past by the opposition parties.
Another senior political expert viewed that there was a lack of proper consultative process as normally the decisions of some personalities are implemented. “Have these opposition parties’ lawmakers discussed with their voters before submitting the resignations?,” he raised a question, mentioning that there is a lack of political consultative process as even members hesitate to raise questions in party meetings.
https://nation.com.pk/11-Dec-2020/timing-of-en-bloc-resignations-threat-is-meaningful
