UNITED National Congress members, sympathetic to their embattled political leader, Basdeo Panday, are unhappy with the decision of the disciplinary committee to withdraw the charges against Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Jack Warner and Winston ’Gypsy’ Peters.

Senior officials of the executive were scheduled to meet yesterday at the offices of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain to discuss the decision of the committee, the Express was told.

Panday is in London.

Reached by phone yesterday, Panday said of the ruling, ’The issue is whether the committee has followed the proper procedure.’

He insisted ’if the party is to defeat the PNM (People’s National Movement), we are insisting that party members abide by the rules of the party or get out’.

Panday returns home today.

Each of the MPs faced over 20 charges for allegedly making public statements inimical to the UNC and for not voting with the party in Parliament.

The Express learnt that a report prepared by the chairman of the committee, Surendranath Dookie, was forwarded to the executive, giving reasons why the committee withdrew the disciplinary letters.

The three dissident members, on Tuesday, walked with their lawyers to successfully argue that the disciplinary committee had no basis to continue with the charges.

A party insider said, ’It was agreed that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the hearing. Based on the lack of evidence and witnesses to support the charges, the matter was withdrawn.’

The nine-member disciplinary committee was chaired by Dookie, with Orlando Nagessar as vice-chairman.