June 29, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 28,1424

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ISLAMABAD, June 28: The combined opposition in the National Assembly, accusing Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub of bias and violation of rules of business, has announced it will file a no-trust motion against him also.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the parliament house cafeteria on Saturday, the leaders of the combined opposition alleged that the deputy speaker under dictation from the government had violated the rules of business by disallowing parliamentary party leaders from speaking on the no-confidence motion.

Earlier, they had withdrawn from the floor of the lower house when the presiding officer started calling names and constituency numbers for taking part in secret balloting in the no-trust motion against Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

The combined opposition had reached parliament house in a procession carrying placards inscribed with slogans of “No LFO No”, “No Musharraf No” and Go Musharraf Go”.

The deputy speaker, opposition leaders said, had broken his promise made in the parliamentary advisory committee that he would allow all the members to speak after the movers of the resolution had finished their speeches.

PPP Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim said bulldozing of the no-trust proceedings had exposed the weakness of the government and given the opposition a moral triumph.

He said the government had shown that it lacked confidence in its own members by depriving them of the right to vote in the secret ballot.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the deputy speaker had acted under dictation from the treasury benches and helped bulldoze the proceedings at the behest of the government.

He said the government had accepted its defeat in the motion by disallowing its members from voting on the resolution and also deprived them of their right to vote.