Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded National Assembly Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf to issue a notification for removing Raja Riaz as leader of the opposition. PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and Secretary General Asad Umar made the demand in a tweet after the Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended an order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify the 43 MNAs of the Imran Khan-led party.

All the 43 PTI lawmakers, including Riaz Fatyana, Tahir Sadiq, Nasrullah Khan, moved the high court after the speaker and ECP accepted their resignations, which were submitted following the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister in April last, despite their announcement regarding withdrawal of the resignations.

Last month, the speaker had swiftly approved the resignations after the PTI announced to return to the National Assembly in a bid to bar opposition leader Raja Riaz, a dissident PTI leader, from negotiating with the government on caretaker set-up in case general elections are announced or supporting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in no-confidence vote. The PTI wanted to appoint its leaders of the opposition and parliamentary leader to put pressure on the coalition government.

Taking to Twitter, Fawad Chaudhry said the NA speaker should show some democracy in his actions and issued a notification to replace the leader of the opposition. “It is not a good tradition to move courts for everything”. Meanwhile, Asad Umar said the LHC had suspended the speaker’s politically-motivated decision. He said the Raja Riaz should prepare to vacate the office of the opposition leader.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP