ISLAMABAD: The speaker of Pakistan’s lower house of parliament on Friday accepted the resignations of 35 lawmakers of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, days after he voiced his intent to ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to seek a vote of confidence from parliament, a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat confirmed.

Khan’s party had decided to quit the National Assembly en masse after he was driven out of power last April in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence but the Speaker, Raja Parvez Ashraf, did not accept the resignations and said he needed to individually verify if the lawmakers were resigning of their own accord.

In a surprise move, however, Ashraf, who is a close Sharif ally, earlier this week accepted long pending resignations of 35 PTI lawmakers, after which the ECP de-notified them. On Friday, another 35 resignations were accepted by the speakers.

The resignations mean the PTI will be challenged in terms of numbers if it asks Sharif to seek a trust vote from parliament.

“In accordance with Clause (1) of article 64 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, read with Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly of Pakistan 2007, the Hon’ble Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan has been pleased to accept the resignations of the following Members of the National Assembly with effect from April 11, 2022, the date when the letters of respective resignations were submitted,” the notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Friday said.

It added that copies of the resignations have been forwarded to the ECP for further action.

The speaker’s move come days after Khan expressed his intent to “test” Sharif by asking him to prove his majority in the lower house of parliament.

“We will fully test him [Shehbaz Sharif],” Khan said in an interview. “He tested us here and now it’s his turn to face the music.”

Earlier this month, Khan’s PTI also dissolved the two provincial assemblies, in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party rules, in a bid to force the Sharif government to call early polls, which are otherwise scheduled for late this year. Khan has been campaigning for snap general elections since being ousted from power.

According to the country’s constitution, new elections must be conducted within three months after a provincial assembly has been dissolved and if the upper house is unable to install an interim setup.