ISLAMABAD    -   In an expected devel­opment, National As­sembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf yester­day accepted resigna­tions of 11 out of total 131 PTI MNAs.

Now, the resignat8ions of 120 PTI MNAs includ­ing PTI Chairman Imran Khan are still pending in the National Assembly Secretariat.

The Speaker Nation­al Assembly accepted the 11 submitted resignations under article 64(1) of the Constitution. These elev­en MNAs included Ali Mu­hammad Khan, Fazal Mu­hammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farukh Habib, Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Chee­ma, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Shireen Mazari and Shan­dana Gulzar. The notifica­tion of accepted resigna­tions has been referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] by the National Assembly Secre­tariat for further proce­dure. The National Assem­bly Secretariat, around a month before, had dis­patched letters to 131 PTI MNAs to appear individ­ually before the Speaker for the verification of their resignations but no MNA from PTI turned up.

Talking to this news­paper, Speaker Nation­al Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf a week before had informed that the mat­ter of resignations would be handled in different phases. Sources said that the resignations of re­maining MPs from PTI would be accepted in dif­ferent phases, as con­ducting bye-elections on 131 seats would be a big task for Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP).

The ruling party with its allies will definitely hesi­tate to adventure on 131 seats of National Assem­bly. The fear of losing a ma­jority in the centre is one of the big hurdles to ac­cept the en masse resigna­tions at one go, as recently the alliance of eleven par­ties [PDM] faced defeat in 15 seats in Punjab.