ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said he is convinced that Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal legislators will not carry out their threat to resign from the National Assembly in protest against the passage of the Protection of Women’s Rights Bill.

Speaking to newsmen at the PML House on Friday, he said he would not lose his sleep over the prospect of a political crisis in the country because there would be no need for by-elections consequent upon the resignations of MMA lawmakers.

He added that it was beyond him why the MMA had been acting as though it had been wronged. He said all the proposals of a panel of religious scholars had been incorporated in the bill seeking amendments to the heavily criticised Hudood laws.

He recalled that he had made an offer to the MMA that if anything in the Protection of Women’s Rights bill was found to be in contravention of the tenets of Islam, he would stand down from parliament. He said his resignation offer – valid till Dec 31 – made resignations by MMA legislators unnecessary.

He said the government would engage the MMA in talks over the bill he submitted to the National Assembly speaker on Thursday.