PTI MNAs to verify resignations in person on Dec 22: sources

• Qureshi to lead 123 PTI MNAs to National Assembly: sources 
  
• Speaker says PTI MNAs privately urged not to accept resignations.
• Cannot accept all resignations at once, says NA speaker.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided that its lawmakers will take their written resignations to National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in person and ask him to verify them, sources told Geo News.

PTI sources have confirmed that their 123 MNAs would go to the NA speaker to verify their resignations on December 22. They added that the lawmakers would assemble at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad before going to the parliament.

The MNAs plan on going to the parliament under the leadership of PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

A day earlier, Qureshi replaced PTI Chairman Imran Khan as the party's parliamentary group leader in the house.

However, the NA speaker rejected Senator Shibli Faraz's application seeking acceptance of PTI MNAs' resignations, saying any decision in this regard would be within constitutional bounds.

The speaker said that many PTI lawmakers have privately urged him not to accept their resignations. In such a situation, the MNA must approach the speaker in person and verify their handwritten resignations, Ashraf added.

Meanwhile, PTI's MPAs in Balochistan have divided into two factions over the PTI chief's decision to resign from all assemblies. One group of MPAs led by PTI Parliamentary Leader Naseebullah Murree favoured the resignations, while the other led by MPA Yar Muhammad Rind opposed the idea.

In an interview on Sunday, Chief Minister Punjab Parvez Elahi — a strong ally of the PTI — also claimed that 99% of people in the country are against the dissolution of assemblies.