ISLAMABAD: Shah Mahmood Qureshi, deputy chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), became the new leader of the parliamentary group of the largest and only opposition party in the National Assembly, replacing party chairman Imran Khan after his disqualification.
“Sources within the National Assembly secretariat said that Khan’s membership had been cancelled by the competent authority from the seat that provided his entry to the House,” according to Geo News.
Qureshi has sent a letter to Raja Pervez Ashraf, the speaker, seeking an appointment to put across the party’s request for the acceptance of all resignations.
Ashraf had already written to the members, whose resignations were submitted in an identical text. They were asked to appear before him individually for the verification of their resignation but none of them turned up. They also did not formally respond to the communication.
Recently, it was reported that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will take up a petition on Tuesday, seeking the disqualification of Khan as a lawmaker for “concealing” his alleged daughter’s identity in the nomination papers.
The registrar’s office of the high court also issued a list of cases slated for hearing, with the aforementioned plea also a part of it.
The petitioner, a mystery person, is seeking Khan’s disqualification claiming he “failed” to acknowledge Tyrian White as his daughter in nomination papers. He said one such piece of information is about the children who are dependent on a candidate, and in this regard, Khan had wrongly mentioned two children — Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan — and had omitted the third.
The complaint refers to an affidavit by the former prime minister for the by-elections held in August for nine constituencies in the National Assembly. By not mentioning White’s name, Khan did not act as “sagacious, righteous, honest and a man of good character in terms of Article 62 of the Constitution,” he claimed.
Mehmood contended in his plea that all candidates contesting elections for either national or provincial assemblies are required to furnish an affidavit with respect to their credentials and assets.
