In a bid to tighten the noose around its dissident party lawmakers, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday slapped its 13 MNAs with show-cause notices for their revolt within the party ahead of the no-trust vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In separate show-cause notices to the party’s 13 MNAs for revolting and violating party policy, PTI secretary general Asad Umar sought explanation and directed them to respond to the notices by March 26 “as to why they may not be declared defectors and disqualified as a Member National Assembly.”

The MNAs who were issued show notices include: 1) Noor Alam Khan (NA-27 Peshawar-I), 2) Dr Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla (NA-98 Bhakkar-II), 3) Nawab Sher Waseer (NA-102 Faisalabad-II), 4) Raja Riaz (NA-110 Faisalabad-X), 5) Ahmed Hussain Deharr (NA-154 Multan-I), 6) Qasim Noon (NA-159 Multan-VI), 7) Abdul Ghafar Wattoo (NA-166 Bahawalnagar-I), 8) Syed Basit Ahmad Sultan (NA-185 Muzaffargarh-V), 9) Aamir Talal Gopang (NA-186 Muzaffargarh-VI), 10) Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari (NA-195 Rajanpur-III), 11) Wajiha Qamar (elected on a reserved seat for women), 12) Nuzhat Pathan (elected on a reserved seat for women), 13) Ramesh Kumar (elected on a reserved seat for non-Muslims).

One of the notices, issued to Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla and a copy of which is available with Business Recorder, says: “It is learnt via large-scale broadcast and videos circulated on different forums of media that you have left the parliamentary party of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and joined the opposition parties, who have brought a motion of vote of no confidence against the honourable prime minister of Pakistan, dated March 8, 2022.”

The notice said the lawmakers had neither denied the contents of the interviews nor issued a rebuttal to this act of defection, adding, “Your interviews contain a clear intent of leaving the membership of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.”

The notice cited Article 63 (A) of the Constitution, stating that the provision bounds the lawmakers to follow the directions issued by their parliamentary party, and referred to two letters, dated March 15, 2022, and March 18, 2022, in this regard.

Under this provision, it added, a defecting lawmaker was also to be given a chance to explain why he may not be declared a defector.

In light of this provision, the notice said, the lawmaker was being given an opportunity to have a hearing before the party head Prime Minister Imran Khan and show their cause “as to why a declaration may not be issued against you for getting you de-seated from the membership of the National Assembly of Pakistan”.

“You may give a reply to this show-cause notice and have a personal hearing before Mr Imran Khan...on or before 2 pm on Saturday, March 26, 2022,” reads the notice.

On March 17, several ruling PTI lawmakers announced that they would not follow the party line in the National Assembly ahead of the voting on no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan after one of the dissidents revealed that at least 24 MNAs are staying at the Sindh House in Islamabad.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on March 20, 2022.