Ex-AGP believes govt can’t legally restrict lawmakers from voting

Former attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) Ashtar Ausaf has said that there is no provision in law, rules, or the Constitution of Pakistan that empowers a party head to stop members of his party from participating in the proceedings of the legislative assembly.

"They can walk out but cannot be stopped from exercising their right to vote in a no-confidence process, nor can the speaker stop a member from voting or discard his vote on the pretext that the party head has declared that the members cannot participate in the voting process, the former AGP said in his statement.

He said that even if the members of a political party defy the directive, they do not get to lose their seat automatically. There is a step-by-step procedure prescribed by the constitution, he added.

The ex-AGP said that there has to be, firstly, a clear direction issued by a parliamentary party to its members as to how each one of them has to cast their vote in a no-confidence motion, but they cannot tell them not to participate and threaten them with disqualification.

"It is only after the vote has taken place that it can be ascertained whether there has been a violation of the party direction. After establishing the violation of direction, the party head has to give a show-cause notice to the member concerned,” he said. "It is only after hearing the member concerned that a party head can then make a declaration that the member concerned has defected.”

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Ausaf said that a copy of the declaration has to be sent to the speaker who acts as a conduit to forward the same to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), after which the commission has 30 days to decide whether the declaration is to be confirmed or not.

“Then, there is the process of appeal to the Supreme Court (SC), which is to be decided in 90 days. It is a long drawn process and can be triggered only after the vote has taken place and not before,” he said. “Having said that, there will be many challenges.”

He further said that the speaker and deputy speaker can create obstacles. To stop them from doing so, a no-confidence move will disqualify them from presiding over the session until such a resolution is voted upon, he added.

"To address concern, over detentions, and stopping the opposition from reaching the parliament, a petition in the court will effectively stop the administration from taking coercive measures,” he further said.

On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) lawyer Chaudhry Faisal Hussain said that the purpose of inserting Article 63 A in the constitution is to stop floor crossing and horse-trading. He said that the speaker could restrain MNAs to vote in case they are violating party head guidelines.

Surprisingly, incumbent AGP Khalid Jawed Khan is silent over the debate regarding the applicability of Article 63 A of the constitution. However, a member of the federal cabinet says that Prime Minister Imran Khan may give surprise to opposition parties on their motion of no-confidence against him

"Game is not over yet as life is full of surprises,” he added.

Moreover, an opposition party’s lawmaker revealed that all government's allied parties would leave the federal government in the next 48 hours. He claimed that PM Imran has no chance to survive himself for no-confidence motion.

It is also learnt that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has agreed to give chief ministership of Punjab to Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.