Islamabad (Web Desk): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers on Monday requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that they should not be denotified if NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf approves their resignations.
Earlier, PTI’s General Secretary Asad Umar announced that 44 PTI will withdraw their resignations.
In a tweet, Asad Umar said that the decision was made on the direction of party chief Imran Khan after the NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf refused to accept all the resignations together and informed that an email in this regard has been sent to the speaker.
Asad Umar, senior PTI leader and close aide of Imran Khan, took to Twitter, announcing that the party had informed NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf about the decision to withdraw resignations.
“The next step would be to get PTI’s lawmaker appointed as the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly,” Asad added.
Meanwhile, PTI leader and former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the decision was taken so that the party could take back the posts of the leader of the opposition and parliamentary party leader.
He said that the PTI MNAs decided to take back the resignations to block the way of fake opposition leaders and to prevent turncoats from voting in favour of the premier in no-trust vote.
Later in the day, party lawmakers also held a meeting with the top brass of the ECP in Islamabad.
Talking to reporters outside the ECP, PTI leader Amir Dogar said the party had provided the commission with a list carrying the names of 45 MNAs who had withdrawn their resignations.
“Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja personally received our application and we requested him that the ECP must play its constitutional role here,” he told the media.
The PTI leader said that the delegation told the commission to treat the party’s decision justly and in the light of the Constitution.
The development comes days after National Assembly Speaker accepted 35 resignations of PTI lawmakers on January 20.
Earlier on January 17, the NA speaker accepted 34 resignations of 34 PTI MNAs and Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
After after the acceptance of 80 resignations since July, the strength of PTI MNAs in the assembly has shrunk to 73 including the dissidents.
It is pertinent to mention that around 131 PTI MNAs tendered their resignations en masse after Imran Khan's government was ousted through a no-confidence motion in April 2022.
On July 28, 2022, the NA speaker had accepted the resignations of only 11 PTI lawmakers.