Pak crisis: Imran Khan’s PTI members quit assembly en masse

The political crisis in Pakistan took a dramatic turn today as legislators of protest leader Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party resigned en masse from the National Assembly.

As protesters continued their siege of the assembly in Islamabad demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's resignation over alleged vote-rigging, leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Arif Alvi submitted to the Speaker's office the resignations of all 34 lawmakers from the PTI, including its chief Imran Khan, a retired cricketing giant.

The resignations do not affect the stability of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government, which has a majority of 190 members in a House of 342. Khan's PTI is the third-largest party in the National Assembly.

The anti-government protests in Pakistan are in their second week with thousands of supporters of PTI chairman Khan and firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri camping outside the Parliament building. After one round of talks on Wednesday both the protesting groups have suspended dialogue with the government.

Following the submission of the resignations, the PTI leadership summoned a session of the party's core committee to deliberate on future strategy regarding anti-government protests and resignations of its lawmakers from provincial assemblies.

The meeting discussed the issue of resignation of its members in the provincial assemblies. The party had earlier this week decided to resign from all assemblies except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province where it forms the government.

"We had already given our resignations to our chairman, and now we have also completed the formal procedure of submitting them to the National Assembly speaker," PTI leader Murad Saeed was quoted by Dawn News as saying.

Qureshi, after submitting the resignations, said the 2013 general elections were not free or fair. He said the party would take guidance from the Constitution.

"We will hold sit-ins in the other major cities as well," the PTI leader said.

Dialogue between protesters headed by Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Qadri with the government broke down on Thursday, even as Prime Minister Sharif ruled out any crackdown on the siege of Parliament.

The fragile dialogue between made no headway as Qadri refused to meet the government's negotiating team while Khan suspended talks calling for Sharif's resignation.

Khan and Qadri have both alleged rigging in the polls last year and called for a re-election.

Defence minister Khawaja Asif today expressed dismay over the current state of negotiations between the two sides.

"The environment to negotiate has still not been established," the defence minister said.

Asif dismissed calls for Sharif's resignation as PTI's first condition. "Issues that can be solved immediately should be addressed first," he said.