ISLAMABAD: A day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan, hinted at returning to the National Assembly, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Tuesday, accepted the resignations of 35 MNAs— 34 PTI lawmakers and Sheikh Rasheed— against the backdrop of the reports that President Arif Alvi is all set to ask PM Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence from the lower house of the parliament.

Interestingly, these members were de-notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) immediately after the speaker accepted them.

In an interview with a private television channel on Saturday, President Dr Alvi said in reply to a question that he would ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence if he felt that he lacked a majority in the house.

He said that opposition that was outside the National Assembly (NA) had popularity among the people.

The development came a day after the PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan hinted at returning to the National Assembly for consultation with the treasury benches “on an interim set-up to be installed after the dissolution” of the lower house of Parliament.

As many as 123 PTI MNAs had resigned en masse on April 11, 2022, after the party Chairman Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister through a no-confidence motion.

Last month, the PTI members wanted to collectively appear before the speaker National Assembly for verification of their resignations. But the National Assembly Secretariat had announced a clear policy regarding the confirmation of resignations of the PTI members, according to which, every party MNA had to personally confirm his resignation.

According to the notification issued by the ECP, “consequent upon the acceptance of resignations by the Hon’ble Speaker, National Assembly of Pakistan and in pursuance of the Notification dated 17th January 2023 of National Assembly of Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan hereby de-notifies the following Members of National Assembly of Pakistan with immediate effect.”

The speaker National Assembly accepted the resignation of 34 MNAs of PTI and Sheikh Rasheed of Awami Muslim League (AML).

The members whose resignations have been accepted include Murad Saeed, Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Qaiser, Pervaiz Khattak, Imran Khattak, Sheharyar Afridi, Ali Amin Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri, Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz, Ali Nawaz Awan, Asad Umar, Sadaqat Ali Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sheikh Rashid, Shafique, Mansoor Hayat Khan, Fawad Ahmed, M Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel, Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mahmood Khan, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, Zartaj Gul, Faheem Khan, Saifur Rehman, Muhammad Alamgir Khan, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Aftab Hussain Saddique, Atta-Ullah, Aftab Jhangir, Muhammad Najeeb Haroon, and Muhammad Qasim Khan Suri.

The resignations of two women MNAs, Aliya Hamza Malik and Kanwal Shauzab from reserve seats were also accepted.—NAVEED BUTT