Opposition parties to resign from assemblies

Islamabad: The Pakistan Democratic Movement has decided to resign en masse from the National Assembly of Pakistan, its head Maulana Fazlur Rehman confirmed Tuesday.

The decision was made at a PDM meeting in Islamabad. The PDM is an alliance of 11 opposition parties which was formed in September this year to overthrow Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.

The alliance has held several rallies in major Pakistani cities, including Gujranwala, Karachi and Quetta. It’ll hold its next and final rally in Lahore on December 13.

Fazl told reporters after the meeting that opposition lawmakers would submit their resignations to their party leaders by December 31. Opposition parties would not withdraw their resignations like the PTI did in 2014, he added.

Fazl said a meeting of the PDM steering committee will be held on Wednesday. The meeting would decide a schedule for shutter-down strikes and demonstrations across the country, he added.

The committee would also finalise the date for the opposition’s march on Islamabad, Fazl said.

In the second phase, provincial lawmakers would resign from the Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, the sources said. The decision to resign from the Sindh Assembly would be taken after resignations from other assemblies are accepted.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, remains unmoved from the oppositions’ threat to resign from the assemblies.

The government would hold new elections if the opposition lawmakers resigned, he told senior journalists a few weeks ago.