ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza announced acceptance of Wednesday's resignation from the house of a rebel PML-Q member, Ms Marvi Memon, in protest against her party joining the PPP-led coalition government and later administered oath to Ms Memon's replacement, Tanzila Aamer Cheema, who automatically got elected to the seat for being on the party's priority list for special women's seats submitted at the time of 2008 elections.

Ms Memon had announced her resignation as a member of the house after virtually disqualifying herself by voting against the money bill in defiance of her party's directive to support it.

The member seemed to have decided her fate on the day Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh presented the budget to the house on June 3 when she joined a noisy PML-N rumpus during the minister's speech after tearing up some budget documents in front of the prime minister.

When other members of her party, like the rest of the coalition partners, said 'ayes' for the finance bill, she repeatedly shouted “no, no', making herself liable to disqualification for violating a constitutional obligation for members of a political party to follow the party directive in voting on a money bill as also in a vote of confidence for the prime minister.