ISLAMABAD: Over 40 lawmakers belonging to former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Monday withdrew their resignations from the National Assembly, confirmed leaders of their political faction, to claim the top opposition post in the house and give a tough time to the government.

The PTI lawmakers decided to quit the lower house of parliament after the downfall of their administration in a no-trust vote last April. Subsequently, Khan conducted a campaign for snap polls in the country and, more recently, dissolved the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party was in power, to build pressure on the government to hold nationwide elections.

Senior PTI vice president Chaudhry Fawad Hussain announced last week his party was interested in appointing the leader of opposition, though he denied any decision had been taken for its return to the National Assembly.

The party’s continued presence in the national legislature can make it part of the consultative process for the appointment of the interim setup ahead of the general elections later this year.

“Since the speaker is not yet accepting the resignations of all [PTI] members of the assembly, 44 of them have emailed the decision to withdraw their resignations to the National Assembly speaker on the instructions of the party chairman,” PTI general secretary Asad Umar announced on Twitter. “The next step will be the nomination of the opposition leader.”

Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignation of 81 PTI lawmakers in three separate phases since the party announced its intent not to return to the legislative body last year. The recent acceptance of the long pending resignations of 70 members came after Khan said he wanted to “test” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by asking him to take a vote of confidence.

The recent acceptance of resignations means the PTI will be challenged in terms of numbers if Sharif is forced to prove his majority in the house.

Explaining the recent decision of his party, the PTI senior vice president said the withdrawal of resignations would help in getting rid of “a fake opposition leader” – a dissident PTI politician Raja Riaz – and prevent others from siding with the current prime minister during the vote of confidence.