LAHORE, Sept 14: The PML-N may go alone on the issue of quitting assemblies if no other opposition party joins it in its drive against Gen Musharraf, say party officials. Resignations of 32 PML-N members in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday is a step towards this direction, they say.

The MPAs reportedly handed over their resignations, addressed to the PA speaker, to party’s Punjab president Zulfikar Khosa in a meeting here. He will forward them to chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, who will dispatch them to the exiled leadership in London for taking a final decision on the subject, they add.

The MPs had earlier tendered their resignations but these were addressed to the party high command instead of the speaker, the legal authority for accepting the same.

The PML-N officials say that MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad had in a recent meeting assured exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif that the religious alliance would follow the suit if the League tendered resignations of its MPs in protest against Gen Musharraf.

But when the PML-N took a final decision on the issue and informed the Qazi about it, the MMA leader responded negatively, saying he could not threaten the unity of the religious alliance as its major component, the JUI-F, was against such a move.

They say that barring the Tehrik-i-Insaaf led by Imran Khan no other party is serious on the resignations issue.

The officials claim that reports of fresh contacts between the PPP and government have disappointed the PML-N leaders and workers alike and the feeling has been conveyed to the PPP leadership here and abroad.

The PML-N is taking this move as against the spirit of the Charter of Democracy recently signed by all Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) components in a London meeting.