ISLAMABAD: The mystery surrounding the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members of parliament was resolved on Tuesday after the National Assembly Secretariat revealed that out of a total of 34 MNAs, 31 had submitted their resignations.

The media wing of the NA Secretariat said that of the 31 resignations, 26 were valid, while five contained minor errors and had to be resubmitted after corrections. Three lawmakers, Gulzar Khan, Nasir Khan Khattak and Mussarat Ahmadzeb, had yet to hand in their notices.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is PTI’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, told Dawn the three legislators had not been able to hand in their resignations due to personal reasons and dismissed rumours of a split within the party over the decision to quit the National Assembly.

The NA speaker’s office said it had invited all 26 MNAs – who filed valid resignations – for a personal hearing to confirm the veracity of their notices. The rest will be contacted after they submit corrected copies of their resignations. “National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq will meet the PTI MNAs who have decided to quit the assembly in person on Thursday and Friday,” a National Assembly Secretariat official told Dawn.

Currently, the official said, the issue of the resignations was secondary as it was connected to the outcome of the ongoing talks between the government and the PTI, which resumed on Tuesday. In case the two sides agreed on a middle ground, the speaker would simply reject these resignations.

During a late night meeting on Monday with heads of various parliamentary parties, the speaker was asked not to accept the resignations of PTI MNAs to allow the two sides more time to think and reach some sort of an agreement to defuse the political standoff.

“The moment the speaker accepts these resignations, it means there is no turning back and the two sides will then meet each other head on,” a source present at the meeting told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014