Speaker raises questions about PA session
Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and former governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema said on Sunday that the legislature is a constitutional institution and weakening it is tantamount to weakening the Constitution and democracy.
During a meeting at the speaker’s residence, they said the Punjab governor had taken an illegal step by issuing an ordinance and an “unconstitutional session outside the assembly has been convened without the Punjab Assembly secretary and staff”.
Pervaiz Elahi said the deputy speaker has no authority to convene a session in the presence of the speaker. An attempt was made by the governor to deprive the Punjab Assembly of its powers, he added.
He said that the session convened at a place other than the assembly had no constitutional and legal status, like the election in the visitor’s gallery. According to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, only the speaker can prorogue a session convened by him. Orders to summon and prorogue assembly sessions have to be issued by the Punjab Assembly secretary, he asserted.
Omar Sarfraz Cheema said the Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution under Article 128 of the Constitution, after which the Punjab Laws (Repealing and Removal of Difficulties) Ordinance 2022 had been repealed.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2022.