The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s members of National Assembly did not turn up at the Speaker’s chamber to personally confirm their resignations, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has summoned 30 PTI MNAs at his chamber at 11am for the confirmation of their resignations submitted on April 11 ahead of the election of new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. 

The speaker waited for more than an hour for the PTI MNAs but not a single lawmaker showed up. Every MNA was supposed to be given 5 minutes for the confirmation or rejection of his resignation. 

However, the PTI leadership has directed its lawmakers not to appear before the speaker, who is set to start verifying the resignations of 131 PTI lawmakers from today. 

All PTI MNAs resigned en masse after their government’s ouster in April. However, the speaker wanted them to appear in person to confirm the “voluntary character and genuineness” of their resignation letters. 

The coalition government does not want to accept the resignations in one go in order to avoid putting extra burden on the Election Commission of Pakistan. So it was decided that the speaker would summon 30 MNAs today for the confirmation of their resignations and the entire exercise of accepting 131 MNAs’ resignations would be completed in four to five days.

The 30 MNAs who were summoned to personally confirm their resignations today included: Dr Haider Ali Khan (NA-2), Saleem Rehamn (NA-3), Murad Saeed (NA-4), Sahibzada Sibghatullah (NA-5), Mehmood Shah (NA-6), Muhammad Bashir Khan (NA-7), Junaid Akbar (NA-8), Sher Akbar Khan (NA-9), Prince Muhammad Nawaz Allai (NA-12), Ali Khan Jadoon (NA-16), Omar Ayub Khan (NA-17), Asad Qaiser (NA-18), Engr Usman Khan Tarakal (NA-19), Mujahid Ali (NA-20), Muhammad Khan (NA-22), Malik Anwar Taj (NA-23), Fazl Muhammad Khan (NA-24), Pervez Khattak (NA-25), Imran Khattak (NA-26), Arbab Amir Ayub (NA-28), Nasir Khan Musa Zai (NA-29), Sher Ali Arbab (NA-30), Shaukat Ali (NA-31), Shehryar Afridi (NA-32), Shahid Ahmad (NA-34), Ali Amin Khan (NA-38), Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh (NA-39), Gul Dad Khan (NA-40), Gul Zafar Khan (NA-41) and Sajid Khan (NA-42). 

Reporter Usman Khan