4 lawmakers of Imran Khan's party resign from Sindh Assembly

KARACHI: Four lawmakers of Imran Khan's party today resigned from the Sindh Assembly, stepping up pressure on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down.

Members of Sindh Provincial Assembly belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) submitted their resignations to the assembly secretariat.

The four PTI lawmakers followed in the footsteps of their 31 colleagues in the National Assembly and 29 in the Punjab Assembly who have also sent in their resignations after cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan asked them to quit.

Syed Hafeezuddin, Samar Ali Khan, Seema Yazdani Zia and Khurram Sher Zaman tendered their resignations in the Sindh Assembly.

The resignations came as more protests and sit-ins were staged in Karachi by PTI workers, disrupting traffic flow in Pakistan's biggest city.

The PTI has been holding a sit-in and protests in Islamabad for the last two weeks against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government alleging rigging in the last general elections in May, 2013 which brought Nawaz Sharif into power for a third time.

Clashes between supporters of the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) led by cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri and the police have been taking place in Islamabad since Saturday night.

PTI which formed the government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has, however, told its lawmakers not to resign from that province.