National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted another 35 resignations submitted by PTI members on Friday, bringing the total number of accepted resignations in recent days to 70.
The speaker had previously accepted 35 resignations on January 17. He had also accepted 11 resignations in July last year, by-elections for those seats have already been conducted.
The latest round of resignations comes after the PTI announced that it would return to the assembly and ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence.
The latest round of accepted resignations includes big party names including Aamir Kayani, Andleeb Abbas, Khusro Bakhtiyar and Maleeka Bokhari.
Here is the complete list
The PTI lawmakers had originally resigned en-masse from the assembly after the PTI government was removed through a no-confidence vote. The speaker initially accepted only 11 resignationas and said that all other members would have to appear individually for verification.
The 20 dissidents that broke away at the time of change of government continue to be part of the assembly.
Speaking outside the assembly after a PTI meeting at KP House, Fawad Chaudhry demanded that all resignations be accepted ‘immediately’.
He said that with resignations in the national assembly and the dissolution of assemblies in KP and Punjab, 64% of Pakistan is currently unrepresented in legislatures.
“A government of 36% has no authority to make decisions,” he said.
Asad Umar said that they had tried to approach the speaker on Friday but he was absent along with his entire staff.
