Islamabad:
The PTI’s decision to disengage from the parliamentary process extended to the Senate this week, while the senators supported by the party began to resign permanent committees in accordance with the directives published by the founder of the Imran Khan party.
After the departure of several legislators of the PTI of the National Assembly committees last week, senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi confirmed her resignation of five permanent Senate committees, in particular trade, industries and production, education, energy and interprotrovincial coordination.
Speaking about the decision, Senator Afridi said he resigned from instructions from the party founder. “I give up on membership of my committee in accordance with the directive published by the founder of the party,” he said in a brief press release.
He was joined by the senior PTI official and former Federal Minister Senator Azam Khan Swati, who also resigned from five Senate committees – Cabinet, Economic Affairs, Health, Law and Justice, as well as the rules and the procedure.
In a strongly written statement, Swati described this decision as a protest against the existing parliamentary system. “These resignations aim to register our opposition to a system that has lost its capacity to maintain constitutional order and the rule of law,” he said.
Swati added that he had submitted his resignation to the PTI parliamentary chief in the Senate, Senator Ali Zafar, who would transmit them to the President of the Senate.
The resignations follow a clear directive published by the founder of PTI, Imran Khan, one day earlier, asking all the senators affiliated with the PTI to leave their respective committee roles.
This decision is widely considered to be part of the party’s broader political strategy to report its rejection of what it claims to be a manipulated and illegitimate parliamentary configuration.
The resignations of the Senate come from an exodus similar to the National Assembly, where the party began its withdrawal from the committees last month.
The first major resignation came from Junaid Akbar, who resigned from his post as president of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). His departure was quickly followed by a wave of resignations submitted by PTI legislators, with the president of the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, officially putting 18 resignations to the office of the President of the National Assembly.
PTI secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, also resigned from the CAP and the Standing Information Committee, strengthening the party’s position according to which he would no longer participate in parliamentary affairs.
