Well-informed sources are reporting that National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has accepted the resignations of 43 more PTI legislators in the lower house of the federal Parliament. Over the past few weeks, the NA has processed the resignations of PTI MNAs at least twice.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) submitted its resignations from the NA in April 2022, in protest at an alleged “regime change conspiracy” that PTI chairman Imran Khan claims was behind the vote of no confidence that ousted his government. The NA resignations were not accepted at first – due to statutory requirements and legal procedures, but mostly in the hope that Khan would take another ‘U-turn’ and return to the assembly. However, they have now been processed in batches, with at least 69 resignations having been approved since 17 January.
Sources in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) say that these 43 resignations are among the last of which were submitted by PTI MNAs. This implies that PTI dissidents who are still members of the National Assembly are the only remaining representatives of Khan’s party in the lower house of Parliament.
ECP sources say these resignations were processed by the NA Secretariat and forwarded to the ECP a few days ago, as per procedure.
