The resignation of the three lawmakers — Khalil Attiya, Wasfi Rawashdeh and Shayesh Khreisha — coincided with a threat by 54 other deputies to boycott Thursday’s session which was due to continue the debate on a report by an ad hoc panel that implicated 17 ministers of Bakhit’s first Cabinet in 2007, parliamentarians said.

To evade forced postponement of the debate on Thursday due to lack of quorum, the house’s Speaker Faisal Fayez on Wednesday decided to cancel the session, the second to be held by the House of Representatives which was summoned by King Abdallah from the summer recess last week to discuss two dozens of badly needed draft laws.

Bakhit survived impeachment by the Parliament on Monday when the house voted to clear him from wrongdoings in the 2007 casino deal. Only 53 deputies voted to condemn the prime minister out of the chamber’s 120 members.

However, the chamber voted with more than the required two-third majority to impeach former Tourism Minister Osama Dabbas.

Under the 2007 casino agreement, Bakhit’s first government authorized a London-based investor to build a casino on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.

Nader Dahabi, who succeeded Bakhit as prime minister, announced in 2008 that his Cabinet had renegotiated the deal to spare the treasury two billion dollars in fines for the annulment of the original accord which he said was harmful for the Jordanian interests.

The issue, which was cited by the opposition and the press as a key corruption case, sparked demonstrations across Jordan over the past weeks, with protesters urging the resignation of Bakhit’s government for its failure to fight corruption and to carry out the political reform promised by the monarch.

Pro-democracy activists said they planned to step up protests on Friday to put additional pressure on the government to quit.