Speaker of the National Assembly Asad Qaiser on Thursday declared that the resignations of two PML-N lawmakers, sent to the NA Secretariat on government letterheads earlier this month, "could not be verified" and that no further action on them was required.

"Both members have disowned their resignations received by National Assembly Secretariat on Dec 14 and both the members also called the resignations fake," the NA Secretariat said in a tweet.

The ruling comes a day after the two PML-N members of the National Assembly (MNAs) Muhammad Sajjad from Mansehra and Murtaza Javed Abbasi from Abbottabad appeared before the NA speaker after letters were issued to them by the assembly secretariat, asking them to appear before the speaker for 'verification' of their resignations.

Earlier this month, a controversy broke out when the letters were issued to them, with the MNAs denying having sent the resignations. The PML-N too termed the resignations "fake" and asked the NA speaker to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

Later in the month, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz directed the two lawmakers to go to the National Assembly speaker and verify their resignations even if they were sent "by mistake".

"Let me tell you one thing, regardless of whether they were sent by mistake, if the NA speaker asks you to verify the letters then say here are your resignations, now accept them," she had said, while addressing a workers' convention in Sukkur.

In a series of tweets today, the NA Secretariat said that action on the resignations was taken according to "the law, rules, guidelines and Supreme Court decisions".

"The resignations could not be verified so no further action is needed," the NA speaker ruled.

Abbasi, who served as deputy speaker in the previous assembly, is the chief whip of the PML-N in the National Assembly and Sajjad is the brother of retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, the spouse of the PML-N vice president.

PML-N’s senior vice-president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had earlier said that the resignations of the party lawmakers appeared to be "fake" and had asked the PML-N lawmakers to formally demand a probe into the matter and also submit privilege motions as their privileges had been breached by this act of the speaker.

Similarly, MNA Abbasi had reportedly questioned how he could send the resignation to the speaker when he himself was responsible for the collection of resignations from MNAs in line with the party leadership’s decision.

PML-N’s Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly Khawaja Asif had said in a statement that the party leadership had set Dec 31 as the deadline for members to submit their resignations to party heads.

All PML-N members, he said, had submitted their resignations to the party leadership already over which a final decision would be taken by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership.

He said the resignations would be submitted to the speaker on the date to be decided by the party leadership and that no member could submit their resignation directly to the speaker.