ISLAMABAD: In a sweeping act of political defiance, seven senators of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) resigned from all Senate standing committees on Thursday, deepening the party’s institutional boycott under the explicit directives of its jailed leader and ex-premier Imran Khan.
The coordinated walkout, ordered by jailed Khan from behind bars, follows a similar move last month when he directed PTI members of the National Assembly to step down from all parliamentary panels.
The Senate resignations, which came just a day after Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan relayed his latest instructions from Adiala Jail, reflect PTI’s ongoing attempt to delegitimise what it calls a “mandate-theft regime.”
The seven senators who have so far submitted their resignation letters on 11th September included Azam Swati, Dost Muhammad, Zeeshan Khanzada, Mirza Afridi, Humayun Mohmand, Fauzia Arshad and Aon Abbas Buppi.
Each cited instructions from Imran Khan and condemned what they described as a calculated dismantling of democratic institutions under the current government.
“I can no longer in good conscience serve on Senate committees when the state is the foremost violator of the very rights and protections these committees are meant to safeguard,” wrote Swati, who formerly sat on six committees ranging from Law and Justice to Health and Cabinet Affairs.
Their resignations, submitted to the Senate leadership, were framed as voluntary but came under explicit instruction from Imran Khan, who remains imprisoned on alleged corruption charges and faces multiple trials under anti-terror laws linked to the violent protests that erupted after his arrest in May 2023. PTI maintains that all charges against Khan are politically motivated, a stance supported by some international observers and human rights organisations.
Still, the government’s crackdown on the party continues unabated, culminating in mass disqualifications of PTI legislators by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in July and August, many linked to the events of 9 May.
The resignations are not merely symbolic. They reflect PTI’s calculated withdrawal from legislative engagement, a political gambit intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of parliament itself. In his letter, Swati blamed the judiciary for the “disintegration of democracy,” citing a “deeply flawed judgement authored by Justice Qazi Faez Isa” – a reference to the Supreme Court decision denying PTI its electoral symbol ahead of the 2024 general elections, further weakening the party’s position at the polls. He also decried what he described as “the abuse of Form-47” – a bureaucratic sleight of hand PTI claims was used to manipulate vote counts in favour of rival candidates.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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