LAHORE: The parliamentary party of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has decided that no Punjab Assembly member of the PTI will appear before the speaker individually for the verification of his/her resignation from the house.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the party held here on Monday with opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed in the chair and, what Mr Rashid said, the same had been conveyed to the speaker in writing.

The resolve was made in the wake of Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal’s invitation to 29 MPAs of the PTI, who had tendered their resignations, to appear before him individually for confirming that they had resigned on their own without any coercion.

Rana Iqbal had invited the four MPAs on Monday but they did not turn up at the speaker’s chamber in Punjab Assembly’s secretariat.

The speaker told the media that he could not yet say whether he would accept the resignations collectively but promised to act in accordance with rules of procedure of the assembly.

Published in Dawn, September 30th , 2014