Motions not likely to be considered before July. PHOTO: APP
The JUI-F and the MQM justified their move by citing relevant rules, according to which any member’s absence without leave from the sessions of the house for 40 consecutive days warrants her/his disqualification.
Government lawmakers said the scope of the move was limited, particularly after the NA speaker’s ruling in favour of the PTI.
The JUI-F and the MQM had also opposed the PTI’s return to the assembly after the government announced forming a judicial commission to probe the allegations of rigging in the 2013 general elections.
Not before July
The MQM’s Mohammad Salman Khan Baloch moved the motion to get the seats of 28 PTI members, including party chairman Imran Khan, vacated. Naeema Kishwar Khan of the JUI-F moved a similar motion.
NA Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, who chaired Wednesday’s proceedings, accepted the motions and said: “According to the rules, the motions would not be considered before seven days have passed from the date on which the motions were moved.”
The next private members’ day is within seven days, so the motions cannot be considered during the upcoming private members’ day.
The house might prorogue afterwards, and the next session might be summoned in June for budget 2015-16. So these motions are likely to be considered in July, after the budget session.
Relevant rules
According to Article 64 of the constitution, a member of the parliament may resign his seat by writing to the speaker, following which his seat shall become vacant.
“The house may declare the seat of a member vacant if, without leave of the house, he remains absent for 40 consecutive days from its sittings.”
Rule 44 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, states: “If a member is absent without leave of the assembly for 40 consecutive days of its sittings, the speaker shall bring the fact to the notice of the assembly and thereupon any member may move that the seat of the member who has been so absent be declared vacant.”
The rule further states that on consideration of the motion, the house may defer, reject or accept the motion; if the motion is accepted, the seat shall be declared vacant, “provided that no such motion shall be considered before the expiry of seven days from the date on which the motion was moved”.
The PTI had announced last August that it would boycott the national and provincial assemblies in protest against alleged rigging in the 2013 polls. The party’s legislators had then submitted their resignations.
The speaker did not accept the resignations because the PTI members did not want to individually verify their resignations in his chambers.
The party returned to the NA after a seven-month boycott to discuss the Yemen conflict.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2015.
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