Govt to make PTI more powerful if it arrests Imran Khan: Asad Qaiser

• Asad Qaiser said NA Speaker committed an offense against his office.
• NA Speaker accepted resignations of 34 PTI MNAs.
• Asad says PTI doesn't care about Imran's incarceration.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser said that the government itself seeks to create such an environment that leads to political instability in the country. He said PTI chief Imran Khan's arrest would make the party more powerful.

Speaking to Hamid Mir in Geo News programme 'Capital Talk,' Qaiser cited NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's decision to accept the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs, which he described as a "great injustice" by the speaker to his office.

Following the ouster of PTI Chairman Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence in April last year, the party's lawmakers resigned en masse from the lower house of parliament. However, Ashraf accepted only 11 resignations and said that the remaining PTI MNAs would have to appear individually for verification.

In a recent statement, Imran Khan had indicated that his party would rejoin the National Assembly to lead a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Ashraf's move, followed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denotifying the PTI MNAs, thwarted the PTI's manoeuvre.

Reacting to the NA Speaker's act, Asad Qaiser said, "You should take the law and the Constitution into account while making decisions when you hold a constitutional position. Therefore, instead of granting the wishes of political figures, you must act in accordance with the law."

Qaiser said that Ashraf reiterated his stance when a PTI delegation met him recently that he would call the party's lawmakers individually for verification of their resignations. However, he said that the speaker stopped short of completing the process and did something that was "absolutely illegal and unconstitutional.”

He insisted, however, that the PTI would not challenge this move in court.

There is a contradiction in what Raja Pervez Ashraf said, he noted. It was not his decision to approve 35 resignations; he was asked to, he maintained.

The PTI seeks a fresh mandate in the country, he said. The bad governance by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Sindh is an example, he noted. Accordingly, we are hashing out our plans for the general elections in Sindh. By-elections will benefit the party as our workers will be mobilised," he noted.

Commenting on the Local Government elections in Sindh, the former NA speaker said that the PTI empathizes with the MQM-P as it recognizes their restrictions.

"Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Amir Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman put up a tough fight. He is commendable," he said. So far the results of local body elections in Karachi have not been given, he said.

Asad Qaiser also said that the government could detain party chief Imran Khan in the run-up to the general elections. The government, which he believed is 'panicked', can go to any length but the party doesn't care, he said. However, this [Imran's arrest] would only end up strengthening the PTI. 

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