National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has refused to budge on his decision to allow PTI members back into the house, assembly sources told Aaj News on Sunday.

The assembly will ‘proceed as per the law’ against any PTI members who try to participate in the assembly session.

The reasoning given by the speaker for his decision is that neither the Lahore High Court or the Election Commission have reinstated the members to the house.

The speaker believes that the court’s order only put off elections for the vacated seats and that the PTI is selectively interpreting the law by claiming its members have been reinstated.

The speaker had accepted PTI’s resignations in three batches in the month of January. The resignations had originally been submitted right after a vote of no-confidence removed Imran Khan’s government from power.

However, the Lahore High Court had recently set aside the schedules issued for by-elections on 70 seats. The PTI members had then appeared in the assembly and tried to participate in the session.

The PTI is hoping to regain control of its parliamentary party, currently dominated by dissident members who did not resign last April. The key aim is to remove Raja Riaz from the post of oppostion leader.