ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq will invite Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers in groups of three to verify their resignations and confirm that they are willing to quit the lower house of their own free will.

The speaker is expected to begin meeting PTI MNAs from Thursday. He is scheduled to meet the party chief, Imran Khan, on Oct 13 to verify his intent to resign.

In response, the PTI wrote to the speaker on Tuesday and requested him “to call us on a single date to verify our resignations” instead of different dates.

Talking to reporters at his office on Tuesday, Mr Sadiq said that for the sake of reconciliation, he had already delayed processing the resignations, which the PTI submitted en masse on Aug 22.

“I again ask PTI Chairman Imran Khan to play his due role and come to parliament which is the real forum to resolve the issues he has been highlighting in his speeches,” the speaker said, adding that he was bound by the rules to accept or reject resignations and could not wait any longer.

During his interaction with the media, the speaker said that he had met the chiefs of various parliamentary parties more than once to discuss the matter of the PTI’s resignations.

To another question, he said the verification process would be completed by Oct 15 and the resignations, if confirmed, would be accepted from the day of their submission, Aug 22.

“Of course, a final decision on whether to accept the resignations will be taken with the consent of the chiefs of parliamentary parties and the speaker is just completing official procedures,” a source in the PML-N told Dawn when asked if the government had made up its mind to de-seat PTI MNAs.

When asked, a senior PTI leader accused the speaker of playing politics. “We in the party believe the speaker just wants to know if some of us are unhappy with their resignations and might stop him from going ahead with the process.” It seemed the government was taking media reports regarding unhappy PTI MNAs seriously, he said.

The PTI leader also said there were chances the speaker would announce the acceptance of resignations on different dates, allowing the Election Commission to conduct by-elections accordingly. This is why the PTI has asked the speaker’s office to invite all party lawmakers on the same date.

Of the 33 PTI MNAs, 30 have submitted their resignations.

Soon after learning of the speaker’s plan to process the PTI’s resignations, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Sirajul Haq telephoned Mr Sadiq and asked him to delay the acceptance of the resignations to allow an opposition jirga to continue its efforts for reconciliation.

Hoping against hope, the JI chief is leading a six-member team, consisting of opposition parliamentarians, in a bid to defuse the political impasse.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014