ISLAMABAD: National Assem­bly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday accepted the plea of two Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) legislators that their resignations received by the assembly secretariat were “fake”.

Through a ruling, the speaker declared that MNAs Murtaza Javed Abbasi from Abbottabad and Mohammad Sajjad from Mansehra “have disowned their resignations received by the National Assembly Secretariat on Dec 14, 2020, and also called the resignations fake, thus no further action is required on them”.

The ruling from the speaker came a day after Mr Abbasi and Mr Sajjad personally appeared before him after receiving letters from the NA Secretariat asking them to do so for “verification of their resignations”.

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

Mr Qaiser said that he was duty-bound to proceed in the matter of the resignations “in accordance with law, rules and the guidelines provided in the judgement of the Honourable Supreme Court”.

Says he’s duty-bound to proceed in the matter in accordance with law

A controversy had arisen when after receiving the letters from the NA Secreta­riat the two PML-N lawmakers denied hav­ing sent the resignations to the speaker.

Mr Abbasi, who had served as deputy speaker in the previous assembly, is the chief whip of the PML-N in the National Assembly, and Mr Sajjad is the brother of retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, the spouse of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz. Mr Abbasi had reportedly asked 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 senior vice president and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi 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.

In their resignations, the copies of which had been released by the NA Secretariat last week, the two MNAs stated that they had decided to resign from their seats as per the directives of the party leadership.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2021