MM News

ISLAMABAD: A session of the National Assembly has been summoned tomorrow (Saturday) regarding voting on the no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.

According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the voting on the no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker will take place tomorrow at 12PM, while the election and oath-taking ceremony of the new speaker will also be held on the same day.

On Wednesday, in a bid to delay the election of the speaker, Suri had used his special powers under the rules and had changed the date of the NA session from April 16 to April 22.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected on Friday the request for a stay order against Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s decision to delay the session. The hearing of the petition was heard by a larger bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Babar Sattar.

The petition was filed against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Murtaza Abbasi stating that the court should direct the deputy speaker to convene a session on April 16 to conduct the election of the speaker.

CJP Minallah stated that the proceedings were an internal matter of the house, especially since a date has been fixed for the election of a speaker. The judge upheld that the court could not interfere with the “dignity of parliament” and there was no reason to doubt the deputy speaker’s intentions. However, the court decided to take up the matter again on April 22.

The seat for the NA speaker fell vacant following the resignation of Asad Qaiser, who stepped down minutes before the Supreme Court’s deadline for the voting on the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s nomination papers for the NA speaker’s slot have been submitted. Since no other NA member has submitted their nomination papers and the deadline has ended, he is expected to be elected unopposed.