ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers have begun resigning from parliamentary standing committees following directives from the party’s founder, Imran Khan.
The move comes as part of the party’s political strategy, which also includes boycotting upcoming by-elections scheduled for the coming months.
MNAs Ali Asghar, Sajid Khan, Shahid Khattak, Faisal Amin Khan, and Asif Khan have all submitted resignations from various National Assembly committees.
Asghar stepped down from the Cabinet, Privatisation, and Planning committees, while Sajid Khan resigned from the Overseas, National Heritage, and Kashmir-related committees, declaring he would even vacate his assembly seat if instructed by Khan.
Faisal, brother of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, left the Economic Affairs, Food Security, and Parliamentary Task Force committees.
Khattak announced he was withdrawing from all standing committees, while Asif resigned from the Education, National Heritage, Culture, and Information and Broadcasting committees.
Separately, Junaid Akbar relinquished his position as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, submitting his resignation to the party’s chief whip, Amir Dogar, in line with the PTI political committee’s directive. Party sources confirmed that the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has received the resignations of Faisal and Ali.
PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram has also resigned from all National Assembly standing committees. He has sent his resignation to NA Speaker Sadiq.
Meanwhile, Khan has also instructed PTI leaders to quit the Judicial Commission, terming the party’s participation in it as ineffective, sources said. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan and Senator Ali Zafar are part of the commission, though, according to sources, Barrister Gohar has denied stepping down so far.
In 2023, the PTI had dissolved the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, registering its protest against the then-PDM-led federal government.
The PTI has also announced that it will boycott the upcoming by-elections in constituencies of party members disqualified in the May 9 cases, declaring those individuals its “true representatives.”
Several constituencies are up for grabs as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recently disqualified several lawmakers belonging to the PTI following their convictions in cases related to the May 9 riots.
The ruling allies — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — had announced they will jointly contest the upcoming by-elections nationwide.
