26th Amendment: PTI's to take legal action against defecting members

Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to take legal action against members of the National Assembly who voted in favor of the 26th Constitutional Amendment. The controversial constitutional amendment was passed by both houses of Parliament on Sunday night.

According to the media report, PTI is considering various options against the defecting members of the Assembly, including sending a reference to the Speaker of the National Assembly, approaching the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Supreme Court against these members, or asking the people to socially boycott them.

PTI has decided that defecting members can no longer be a part of the party.

It is pertinent to note that PTI-backed independent members of the National Assembly Zahoor Qureshi, Aurangzeb Khachi, Usman Ali and Mubarak Zaib voted in favor of the 26th constitutional amendment.

Speaking to media, former speaker National Assembly and senior party leader Asad Qaiser said that basically it has been decided that these members will not be part of PTI.

He stated: “The government wanted legislation and to get it they arranged everything from the court to the Assembly members. However, we have decided to take legal action against these members. First, a reference will be sent to the speaker in this regard, and then ECP and the Supreme Court will also be approached against them”.

Asad Qaiser added that they were are also considering appealing to the public to start a social boycott of these members of the assembly.

PTI Think Tank Chairman Rauf Hasan said that strict action will be taken against these MLAs.

He stated: “It is a fact that the definition of Article 63A has been changed, but we will analyze the nature of the pressure faced by these assembly members and the circumstances that forced them to go against the party policy”.

He also said that they would send the reference to the Speaker National Assembly but he would never take any action.

It is pertinent to note that Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had said in a statement on the floor of the National Assembly that these four members were elected independently and they are not on the PTI ticket.

On the other hand, MNA Zain Qureshi has denied reports that he was present in the Parliament premises at the time of approval of the constitutional amendment, claiming that he was in hiding as per the instructions of his father Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

He said that on October 16, he went to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and stayed there until the amendment was passed. If someone proves that he was in Parliament House, he would quit politics.