PTI terminates dissident MPA Javed Nasim membership

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has terminated the membership of its dissident Member Provincial Assembly Javed Nasim and written a letter to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker with the request to unseat him before the Senate elections.
Javed Nasim, however, declared that no one could disqualify him as member of the provincial assembly. He said he would vote for that candidate in the Senate polls who could do development work in his constituency.
Javed Nasim, who was elected as Member Provincial Assembly from Peshawar urban constituency PK-3, had signed the nomination papers of an independent candidate for the Senate elections as proposer in violation of the party discipline.
Since then he has been facing severe criticism from the party circles. There were reports on Tuesday that he was going to meet Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, but apparently no meeting was held.
The PTI and Insaf Students Federation activists have also been staging protests against him. At times the party activists and his supporters also became involved in fist-fights. There was aerial firing outside his house on Peshawar’s Dilazak Road the other night when PTI loyalists staged sit-in outside his house. Cases with the police were also filed after the incident.
PTI chairman Imran Khan Tuesdaydecided to terminate Javed Nasim’s membership. The notification about termination of his party membership was submitted to the Speaker, Asad Qaiser, with the request to disqualify him as assembly member.
However, as per rules, the Speaker cannot terminate membership of a lawmaker. He can approve a reference seeking disqualification of an assembly member and forward it to the Election Commission of Pakistan, which would decide his fate in line with the Constitution.
The procedure of disqualification of a legislator is clear in the Constitution. The Election Commission could disqualify a member if he resigns from the party or is proved guilty of floor-crossing. The floor-crossing has been defined as not voting for Prime Minister and Chief Minister and violating party lines on money bill and constitutional amendment. Therefore, it would be difficult for the Election Commission to disqualify Javed Nasim as Member Provincial Assembly.
PTI central senior vice-president and candidate for Senate elections Shibli Faraz was, however, confident that the Speaker, who belongs to the PTI, would disqualify him today (Wednesday) as a reference to this effect has already been submitted to him.
Javed Nasim on the other hand, told The News that he cannot be disqualified as member of the assembly. He said he was poor and this was the reason he was facing such treatment. “Many members of the National Assembly had also betrayed the party line and refused to resign their seats. But no sit-in was staged in front of their houses,” he said.
He alleged that well-heeled people have been allotted the PTI tickets for contested the Senate elections. He maintained that Imran Khan has brought ‘Gullu Butts’ to Peshawar. “The ‘Gullu Butts’ of PTI attacked my house. This was terrorism. I would register FIR against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak for the attack on my house,” he stressed.
Javed Nasim accused PTI chairman Imran Khan of using the police for political purposes. “This has exposed his claim of having depoliticized the police in the province,” he maintained. Javed Nasim’s differences with the party are not new. He has already violated the party line several times.
The first action was taken against him in October 2014 when his basic party membership was terminated for staging protests against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, when the party was busy in the sit-in in Islamabad.