Ahead of voting on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has submitted a reference against its 20 dissident MNAs under Article 63-A of the Constitution to NA Speaker Asad Qaiser, reported Aaj News on Saturday.

In the reference, sent by the PTI chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan and submitted to the speaker by the party's chief whip Amir Dogar, the premier requested the NA speaker to initiate the proceedings of de-seating the disgruntled MNAs under the stated article of the Constitution.

The dissident lawmakers were elected in the general election of 2018 on the basis of PTI's party ticket, but they left the ruling party and joined the united opposition later, according to the text of the reference.

It further stated that the party issued show-cause notices to the disgruntled MNAs and asked them to respond on joining the opposition parties. However, they were unable to satisfy the party chief.

It is pertinent to mention that after the united opposition submitted the no-confidence motion against the prime minister on March 8, the disgruntled MNAs of the ruling PTI took refuge in the Sindh House in Islamabad, citing "security concerns" while rejecting claims of "horse-trading".

During all this, PM Imran and his party maintined that the dissident lawmakers were paid Rs150-200 million each to "sell their conscience" and vote against the premier on the no-trust move.

Later the federal government filed a presidential reference in the Supreme Court for interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution and the apex court has clubbed the case with the Supreme Court Bar Association's plea for peaceful execution of no-confidence vote against the prime minister in the Lower House of the Parliament.

A five-member larger bench of the top court was hearing the presidential reference which has been again fixed for hearing on April 12.