16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 15: Two MPAs from Bahawalpur who quit the PPP three months back resigned from their Punjab Assembly seats here on Saturday.

Speaker Afzal Sahi immediately accepted their resignations and forwarded them to the chief election commissioner for further action.

Khalid Mahmood Waran from PP-269 and Shoaib Karim from PP-275, now the former MPAs, assigned no reason for their resignations.

Three months ago, they along with another PPP MPA Dr Muhammad Afzal from PP-276, had announced at a press conference that they would quit their posts in protest against discriminatory treatment of workers by chairperson Benazir Bhutto. Dr Afzal tendered his resignation around two weeks ago.

When contacted, Mr Sahi said he was unaware of the reason(s) behind the resignations. "The members themselves are in a better position to give the reason(s)."

He said he was not authorized to inquire any member about reasons for his/her resignation.

Meanwhile, a 20-member delegation of the Punjab Assembly will visit Canada in June for which the speaker has sent a summary to the finance department for funds.