NA speaker accepts resignations of PTI's another 35 MNAs.

ISLAMABAD -- Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, in an expected move, yesterday accepted the resignations of PTI's another 35 MNAs which were immediately de-notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP].

The resignations were accepted under clause (1) of Article 64 of the Constitution and rules of procedure and conduct of Business in the National Assembly [NA], read with Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly of Pakistan 2007. All these resignations were accepted with effect from April 11, 2022, the date when the letter of respective resignations was submitted.

The names of these MNAs include Dr Haider Ali Khan, Saleem Rehman, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mehboob Shah, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Junaid Akbar, Sher Akbar Khan, Ali Khan Jadoon, Engr Usman Khan Tarakai, Mujahid Ali, Arbab Amir Ayub, Sher Ali Arbab, Shahid Ahmed, Gul Dad Khan, Sajid Khan, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Syed Faiz ul Hassan, Chaudhry Shoukat Ali Bhatti, Umar Aslam Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Khurram Shahzad,Faizullah, Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar, Syed Fakhar Imam, Zahoor Hussain Qureshi, Ibraheem Khan, Tahir Iqbal, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Abdul Majeed Khan, Andaleeb Abbas and Asma Qadeer, Munawara Bibi Baloch and Maleeka Ali Bokhari.

Background discussions with senior lawmakers revealed that the acceptance of resignations with a gap of two days was seemingly to block PTI's expected plan to make successful a no-confidence move against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Speaker National Assembly on Thursday had surprisingly put off the National Assembly session. The sudden acceptance of resignations and putting off scheduled sitting of the lower house is largely believed to avoid PTI's expected political move to rejoin the national assembly.

Now the total resignations of PTI members are 81. Last week, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had hinted at returning to the National Assembly to ensure that the PTI dissidents would not be able to take part in a vote of confidence as, the PTI's dissidents member [33 MNAs] could be favourable for leader of the house. In another plan, PTI is also contemplating to get the slot of leader of opposition and chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee [PAC]. Whereas, Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf...