ISLAMABAD: After losing the all-important NA-122 to Nawaz Sharif’s party, will Imran Khan now end his unannounced boycott of the National Assembly, which is expected to re-elect Ayaz Sadiq as speaker?
Imran Khan, who had announced boycott of assemblies in August 2014 as part of his sit-in politics, has visited National Assembly only once on April 6, 2015 to attend joint session of the parliament on the Yemen situation.
Later, he avoided attending the National Assembly session though other PTI MNAs have been taking part in the parliament’s proceedings.A few months back, Imran Khan had once told the media that he would end boycott of the National Assembly after the election tribunal’s decision in NA-122 case. The case was decided in August 2015 in Imran Khan’s favour still he did not come to the National Assembly.
There has been no announcement from the PTI after the NA-122 decision by the Election Tribunal if Imran Khan would attend the National Assembly or wait for the result of the by-elections in the same constituency.
The by-elections for the NA-122 held on October 11 in which the PTI’s candidate Aleem Khan lost to PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq in a nail-biting contest.The PML-N has already decided to re-elect Ayaz Sadiq as speaker of the National Assembly. Ayaz’s re-election is an unambiguous rejection of PTI’s rigging allegations.
Addressing a press conference a day after PTI got Ayaz Sadiq de-seated from Election Tribunal, Imran Khan had also demanded the resignation of members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for their alleged involvement in “serious irregularities” in the NA-122 polling in Lahore during 2013 general elections.
The PTI chairman was of the view that the ECP members had lost legal and moral standing and therefore must resign. Khan had also asked the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to quit.
Chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI) Imran Khan on Wednesday has arrived in Lahore on a two-day visit to launch NA-122 by-election campaign.It has been the view of the PTI and its chief that there were 53,000 suspicious votes that were bagged in Ayaz Sadiq’s favour in NA-122 in 2013 general elections. Khan was of the view that that such votes were not simply a ‘mistake’ but rigging on massive scale.
The Oct 11, 2015 by-election did not prove this allegation, and showed that the outcome of the 2015 by-election was not different from the result of the 2013 contest in NA-122. In this situation, it will be interesting to note if Imran Khan and the PTI would continue demanding ECP members’ resignation or review their doubts about the ECP, which has not yet been empowered despite seeking Indian Election Commission-like authority even months before 2013 elections.