ISLAMABAD, June 20: The combined opposition in the National Assembly submitted a no-confidence motion against Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to the assembly secretary here on Friday.
The motion carries signatures of 11 members belonging to various parties, including six PPP members.
The motion was handed over to National Assembly Secretary Mehmood Saleem Mehmood jointly by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Liaquat Baloch, Rauf Mengal and Mehmood Khan Achakzai at his office at about 11am.
Earlier, all the members gathered at the suite of Naveed Qamar at Parliament Lodges and put their signatures on the document.
Those who signed the motion included PPP’s Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, Dr Azra Fazal and Sherry Rehman, PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, MMA’s Liaquat Baloch, JWP’s Haider Bugti, BNM’s Abdul Rauf Mengal and PkMAP’s Mehmood Khan Achakzai.
The motion has been filed under Rule 12 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the National Assembly. In the notice, the opposition members stated they were moving the no-confidence motion as the Speaker had “transgressed his authority by giving a ruling on the Constitution and thereby undermining the sovereignty of the house which was beyond his purview regarding the LFO’s status vis-a-vis the Constitution”.
Talking to newsmen after submitting the motion, the opposition leaders said the speaker had no right to hold the office after giving a ruling on the Legal Framework Order as he had become a party.
Liaquat Baloch said the opposition members had not sought a ruling, rather they objected to the views of Chaudhry Amir Hussain when he declared the LFO as part of the Constitution in his first press conference after assuming the office of the speaker.
“We have even requested the speaker not to preside over the session when the LFO would come in the house for discussion,” he said.
Mr Baloch said the speaker had given the ruling at a time when the opposition members were not present in the house. On the statements of some ministers that the opposition wanted to disrupt the president’s foreign tour, he said the speaker himself had given this ruling at this time.
Moreover, he said, the MMA believed that Gen Musharraf was visiting the US and European countries as the army chief and not as president. He said before the start of the visit, Gen Musharraf had intentionally issued provocative statements against the opposition members in general and the MMA in particular.
Mr Baloch was of the view that the opposition had no option but to file the no-trust move against the speaker which was its constitutional right.
Naveed Qamar said the speaker had no powers to give a ruling on constitutional matters.
The PPP MNA said it was just like the permission given by the Supreme Court to Gen Musharraf to amend the Constitution. The opposition, he said, believed that the Supreme Court had no powers to authorize any person to amend the Constitution, and similarly the speaker had no powers to give ruling that the LFO was part of the Constitution.
When asked about the chances of success of the no-trust move, he said it was not a numbers game. “We consider it as our success that all opposition parties are united on this issue,” he said. Mr Qamar, however, expressed the hope that as there would be secret balloting the motion could succeed as members would cast vote according to their conscience.
The National Assembly Secretary, Mehmood Saleem Mehmood, when contacted, said the next session could be held on or after June 28 as according to the rules “the session is called after seven days from the date of the receipt of the motion” and it would be included in the “Orders of the Day” on the first working day. Meanwhile, sources said the session would be held on June 30.
