Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted 43 more resignations submitted by PTI members on Tuesday. This takes the total number of resignations accepted since January 17 to 113.

The speaker had previously accepted 35 resignations on January 17 and another 35 resignations on January 24. This is apart from the 11 resignations accepted in July last year on which by-elections have already been held.

Although the assembly secretariat has not revealed the latest party position, PTI’s parliamentary party is now all but limited to the dissident members who refused to resign in April 2022, when Imran Khan’s government was dismissed.

Read more: PTI withdraws 44 resignations from National Assembly

Sources said that the summary of the accepted resignations has been sent to the the Election Commission of Pakistan by the speaker’s office.

The latest list of accepted resignations includes PTI leaders including Riaz Fatyana and Munazza Hassan among others.

The recent flurry of resignations comes after teh PTI indicated that it will return to assemblies to defeat PM Shehbaz Sharif in a vote of confidence. The party was also hoping to regain control of PTI’s parliamentary party which is currently in control of dissident member Raja Riaz.

Reacting to the speaker’s latest action, Fawad Chaudhry said that that the speaker had emptied 40% of the assembly ‘to save Raja Riaz’.

He also added that Shahbaz Sharif’s government was ‘surviving on turncoats’ and that it has no ‘representative status’.