National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted on Friday the resignations of 35 more Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNAs.
As many as 123 PTI MNAs resigned en masse on April 11, 2022, after former prime minister Imran Khan was ousted through a no-confidence motion.
Since then, the resignation of a total of 80 MNAs has been accepted. In addition to the most recent 35, 11 were accepted in July last year and 34 resignations were accepted yesterday (Thursday).
On Thursday, Raja accepted the resignations of 34 PTI lawmakers as well as Sheikh Rasheed, after he was “convinced” that they were not offered under any influence of pressure.
NA speaker says ‘convinced’ 34 PTI MNAs wanted to resign
These members were de-notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) immediately after the speaker accepted them.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad earlier, the NA speaker said “lawmakers who openly asked for their resignations to be accepted and convinced him are part of the list.”
When asked if the resignations were accepted as PTI Chairman Imran Khan has hinted at returning to the parliament, the speaker said a number of lawmakers have contacted him and told him that they are still considering their decision.
“That’s why their resignations were not accepted,” he said.
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.
The names of MNAs whose resignations were accepted on Friday are as follows:
Dr. Haider Ali Khan (NA-2)
Saleem Rehman (NA-3)
Sahibzada Sibghatullah (NA-5)
Mehboob Shah (NA-6)
Muhammad Bashir Khan (NA-7)
Junaid Akbar (NA-8)
Sher Akbar Khan (NA-9)
Ali Khan Jadoon (NA-16)
Engr. Usman Khan Tarakai (NA-19)
Mujahid Ali (NA-20)
Arbab Amir Ayub (NA-28)
Sher Ali Arbab (NA-30)
Shahid Ahmed (NA-34)
Gul Dad Khan (NA-40)
Sajid Khan (NA-42)
Mohammad Iqbal Khan (NA-44)
Aamer Mehmood Kiani (NA-61)
Syed Faiz ul Hassan (NA-70)
Chaudhry Shoukat Ali Bhab (NA-87)
Umar Aslam Khan (NA-93)
Amjad Ali Khan (NA-96)
Khurram Shahzad (NA-107)
Faizullah (NA-109)
Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar (NA-135)
Syed Fakhar Imam (NA-150)
Zahoor Hussain Qureshi (NA-152)
Ibraheem Khan (NA-158)
Tahir Iqbal (NA-164)
Aurangzeb Khan Khichi (NA-165)
Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar (NA-177)
Abdul Majeed Khan (NA-187)
Andaleeb Abbas (reserved seat)
Asma Qadeer (RS)
Maleeka Ali Bokhari (RS)
Munawara Bibi Baloch (RS)