Opp gears up for no-confidence move against NA Speaker

The opposition parties in the National Assembly are gearing up to bring a no-confidence motion against the house’s speaker Asad Qaiser over his alleged bias to facilitate the ruling party to bulldoze bills and allow the treasury benches to extend expired ordinances.

The development came during a meeting of the joint opposition last Friday, where they deliberated upon ousting NA speaker, sources in the opposition parties said.

Further strategy in this respect will be chalked out in a meeting scheduled for Monday, they added.

Sources revealed that the opposition parties are readying to bring the no-confidence move against the speaker before the mini-budget and a bill granting autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) are passed into law. A final decision, however, has yet to be made in this regard.

‘Qaiser ignored opposition’

PPP’s Shazia Atta Marri told The Express Tribune that the Constitution and rules of the assembly were continuously being violated during NA proceedings. “Speaker is the custodian of the House and his chair warrants him to act impartially,” Marri said, lamenting that “unfortunately, the speaker’s conduct clearly shows partiality and he continues to disregard the opposition in the house”.

“This blatant violation of constitution, rules and traditions has compelled the opposition to seriously consider the option of a no-confidence motion,” Marri said, adding “no confidence is on the agenda but time and date is not decided as yet.”

“Opposition discussed bringing a no-confidence motion against the speaker on Friday,” a member of the opposition parties disclosed. “It was discussed that the motion should be moved before the government meets the IMF’s deadline of January 12.”

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Since the voting on the resolution will be held through secret ballot, another lawmaker said, the opposition also discussed seeking support from the ruling party’s allies.

The lawmaker said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) didn’t immediately give its consent and sought time to deliberate upon the strategy. Subsequently, it was decided that the opposition should meet again on January 3 (Monday).

The no-confidence motion against the speaker or the deputy speaker can be filed under rule 12 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly. Sub-clause 8 of the rule states that “voting on the resolution shall be by secret ballot, which shall be held in such manner as the Chairperson may direct.”

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has already announced that it would soon bring a no-confidence motion against Qaiser after consulting with the opposition parties.

On Friday, PPP leaders Syed Naveed Qamar and Shazia Atta Marri accused Qaiser of attacking the constitution and committing a crime against the country by extending six ordinances that had already expired.

PPP leaders had expressed these views in a written letter to the NA speaker a day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government introduced Rs375 billion mini-budget, presented the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and extended six expired ordinances amid opposition’s protest.

“In flagrant disregarding it to serve the interest of the federal government, you have committed a crime against this country,” Qamar and Marri had stated in the letter. Given that there is no provision in the Constitution to extend an already expired ordinance, the letter read, it was the speaker’s responsibility as custodian of the house to reject the move by the government.

“However,” it read, in a clearly partisan role, you did not only admit the agenda, but you also allowed for it to pass, making yourself complicit in this attack on the Constitution of this country.”

The PPP lawmakers stated that that the speaker’s actions on December 30 were completely unconstitutional and illegal and were taken despite legislators’ highlighting the Constitutional violation to him on the floor of the house and subsequently protesting against the same.

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The lawmakers have demanded that the extension of the six ordinances already expired be reversed and the expiration upheld as per the Constitution. Referring to the agenda, they said that six out of eight expired ordinances were brought for extension in a blatantly unconstitutional move.

Earlier, the joint opposition had submitted a no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri but later withdrew it. Similarly, the current motion against the speaker is not unprecedented as the opposition has announced it several times before deciding otherwise.

On December 30, the lower house of parliament had adopted various resolutions extending various ordinances for a period of 120 days, including the Election (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 from December 29; the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 from December 29; the Federal Government Properties Management Authority Ordinance, 2021 from December 15; the Public Properties (Removal of Encroachment) Ordinance, 2021 from December 22; the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, from December 22; the Public-Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, from December 22; the Pakistan Food Security Flow and Information Ordinance, 2021 from January 7, 2022; and the Tax Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 from January 1, 2022.