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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Resignations not submitted won’t scare PML-N

By Tariq Butt
December 12, 2017

ISLAMABAD: The handover of resignations by five federal and provincial legislators belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to the Sial Sharif shrine custodian, Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi, is inconsequential because these can’t take effect for not having been delivered to the proper forum and are just for political consumption.

The resignations may appear to be a setback, embarrassment for the PML-N, which is being cornered by those scared of its victory in the next general elections, but these are not a bombshell for it as some would like to interpret them. For this reason, they have not unsettled the PML-N much.

Any such resignation can only come into operation if it is delivered to the respective speaker and its signatory authenticates it in person. Making an announcement to quit the legislature and giving resignation to anybody else is just politics and it has no worth and value in the eye of law.

It was left to the aging Pir by the two National Assembly members - Nisar Jutt and Ghulam Bibi Bharwana - and three Punjab Assembly lawmakers - Nizamuddin Sialvi, Maulana Rehmatullah and Khan Baloch - to use their resignations at his will at an appropriate time.

When Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi first made public his chief demand – stepping down of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah - it was stated that he has resignations of at least 15 legislators. The figure was later hiked to 18. But what finally came out was much less than these claims.

In the beginning, a number of lawmakers assured the custodian that they would vacate their seats. But they changed their mind when the time to leave came at the Faisalabad conference. All those who thus slipped did not even turn up at this rally.

The devoutness and spiritual commitment of those who delivered their resignations to the custodian apart, they are apparently ambitious to bag whatever following he has in their constituencies in the next elections that they will certainly contest. Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi has some vote-bank in these areas of Sargodha and Jhang.

It is not known whether these MPs will seek the PML-N tickets in the forthcoming parliamentary polls. It is also unclear whether or not the PML-N will oblige them if they applied for sponsorship. However, a strong possibility is that these lawmakers have burnt their boats as far as the PML-N is concerned, and they are likely to switch to some other political party or will compete in the elections as independents.

It is stated that one of the legislators, who had committed to Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi to resign, but backtracked later, had informed the top PML-N leadership some time back that the two federal lawmakers were in touch with an opposition party to join it at some stage so that they get its tickets in the next polls.

However, these MPs will have to keep in mind the opinion and advice of Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi while switching to any political party from the PML-N. On its part, the PML-N is hopeful that it will take care of the differences at some point of time that the custodian has with it.

Nisar Jutt was among those who had not voted in the National Assembly against the opposition’s amendment in the Elections Act, 2017, which sought to divest ousted Prime Minister as the PML-N president. Despite his abstention, he had subsequently expressed his solidarity with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and favoured him as the PML-N chief in place of Nawaz Sharif. He had also echoed the line that there should be no confrontation with the premier state institutions, which was clearly aimed at rejecting the former prime minister’s approach and strategy in the wake of his disqualification by the Supreme Court on July 28.

There is a strong feeling within the PML-N that it should take steps to stem any erosion for which hectic efforts are being made by different quarters simply because of the fear that it may carry the day in 2018. This is the nightmarish scenario for such elements.

On its part, the senior PML-N leadership had not seriously taken corrective measures to soothe Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi, who otherwise is not very belligerent as some other religious figures, to give up his stand. Traditionally, he has always stood with the PML-N, and it was for this precise reason that Nawaz Sharif had once made him senator.