New rules: Opposition members now able to remove house leader

New rules approved by lower house focused on bringing them in conformity with the 18th amendment.

ISLAMABAD: Opposition members in the National Assembly are now empowered to remove the leader of the house if a majority of them do not have confidence in him, according to new business rules.

Approved by the lower house in its Friday’s sitting, the set of new rules are primarily focused on bringing them in conformity with the 18th constitutional amendment passed by the parliament in April this year.

One of the amendments to the rules that govern the conduct of business of the house specifies that the country’s prime minister will be Muslim.

Though Pakistan’s constitution never allowed a non-Muslim to become either the head of the state or that of the government, this was not specifically mentioned in old house rules.

Through insertion of altogether new rules (39A and 39B), the opposition members have been allowed to write to the speaker to change the opposition leader.

All that they have to do for this, according to the rules, is to be in majority and forward a notice to the house secretariat showing that the leader has lost their support.

Such notice, says one of the conditions set in the new rules, must also propose the name of the new opposition leader.

There have been instances in Pakistan’s parliamentary history that an opposition leader once nominated by the speaker was never removed even if the members rose against him.

The one classic example is of Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the previous parliament (2002-2007).

As head of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Maulana was nominated as the opposition leader by the then Speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

Later, when all other opposition parties entered into an Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to outnumber the MMA, the speaker refused to remove Maulana because it was then his discretion.

The house rules has also proposed to send to the joint sitting of the two houses of the parliament, a bill that is passed by the National Assembly but rejected by the Senate.

Previously, a mediation committee of both the houses was responsible to intervene in such cases.

Another amendment has made it binding on the government to pass a resolution from both houses of the parliament for a one-time re-promulgation of an ordinance issued by the president.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.