By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Eighty-four parliamentarians from the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) and two from the ruling PML-Q Tuesday submitted their resignations to the speaker in a bid to block the presidential elections on Oct 6.
Reports said APDM members in the provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan have also resigned. In the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), however, the ruling Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance within the APDM, has delayed resignations as the opposition has filed a no-trust move against Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.
All 86 members of the National Assembly came to Speaker Amir Hussain Chaudhry’s chamber together and handed over their resignations to him one at a time.
“I should have done this earlier, but even now the resignations would prove the presidential elections to be a sham,” said cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who was the first to submit his resignation.
President Pervez Musharraf, whose candidature has been cleared by the Supreme Court and the Election Commission, is the main contender for the presidential polls with a clear majority to win the polls for a second five-year term.
A large number of supporters of the APDM parties also gathered outside the parliament on Constitution Avenue, which had witnessed ugly scenes Saturday when protesting lawyers and journalists were beaten up by the police.
The political workers chanted slogans like “go Musharraf go” and “no to dictatorship”; some were also seen carrying posters of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The major opposition party, Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), however, stayed away from the proceedings with the former prime minister negotiating a power sharing deal with Musharraf.
PPP has fielded its own candidate — Makhdoom Amin Fahim — in the presidential elections.
The third candidate, former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, has been fielded by lawyers who have challenged Musharraf and vowed to continue their campaign against him until his ouster.
“We are discussing the matter. A decision would be taken by tomorrow about the NWFP assembly,” said an MMA leader.
The opposition has 84 members in the National Assembly, but two members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam also joined them in quitting the house. The APDM has 152 members in the four provincial assemblies.
The Pakistan president is elected by members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the four provincial assemblies.