NA speaker calls two PML-N lawmakers to verify resignations

Khawaja Asif tells party lawmakers that no member shall submit their resignation directly to the speaker

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly Secretariat on Thursday summoned two legislators of the PML-N to finalise a date for appearing before the speaker of the lower house for the confirmation of their resignations.

According to the NA Secretariat, two separate letters were dispatched to Muhammad Sajjad (NA-14) and Murtaza Javed Abassi (NA-15), to contact the NA Secretariat in person within seven days so that the date for their appearance before the speaker could be finalised.

“They have been further informed that if they fail to respond, it would be construed that they have nothing to say and their resignations would be accepted as per rules,” the official statement read.

Through the letters, both the MNAs were told that their resignations from the seats of National Assembly on their official letter heads were received on December 14, 2020 and their signatures were found genuine as per record of the NA Secretariat.

Since the opposition parties started its anti-government protest and threatened to resign from the NA and Senate, Prime Minister Imran and key leaders of PTI have constantly been asking the opposition parties to resign promising that they would immediately be accepted.

However, PML-N’s parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif maintained that the party leadership had set December 31 as the deadline for members’ resignations but all PML-N members of the assembly had already submitted their resignations to the leadership and the final decision will be taken about it by the PDM leadership.

In a statement Asif noted that the “resignations will be submitted to speaker on the date decided by the leadership of the party and no member shall submit their resignation directly to the speaker.”

Earlier, on December 9, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz while responding to the PDM leaders’ plan to submit en masse resignations on December 31 had pointed out that the PML-N vice president and JUI-F chief were not members of parliament, therefore, the lawmakers will not quit assemblies on their demand.