I will submit resignation by Monday: Qadri

By Mubasher Bukhari

LAHORE: Dr Tahirul Qadri, the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) chairman, has said that he will fax his resignation from the National Assembly to the speaker in the next 48 hours, sources close to Mr Qadri told Daily Times on Saturday.

Mr Qazi removed his personal belongings from his room at Parliament Lodges in Islamabad on Saturday.

Dr Qadri suffers from a spinal cord problem and used special apparatus to sit on his seat in the NA. He also removed the apparatus from the chair.

Sources said that Dr Qadri had drafted a resignation letter and would fax it to the NA Speaker, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, most probably on Monday.

Dr Qadri told Daily Times on the phone from Islamabad that although his colleagues from the treasury and the opposition were asking him not to resign “I will not withdraw and the decision is final”.

He said that some opposition members had torn up his resignation in the house as a gesture of goodwill but he had told them that he would send it directly to the speaker’s chamber.

About his opposition to President Pervez Musharraf’s rule, Dr Qadri said, “When Musharraf took over we supported his seven-point agenda, but the president failed to carry out across-the-board accountability and transfer power to the elected representatives after elections.

“Gen Musharraf is controlling everything while parliament is a rubber stamp. I don’t feel that I should sit in such a powerless parliament which can be suspended with a single stroke of a general’s pen,” Mr Qadri said.

He said that he had consulted the PAT’s executive council before he resigned.

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