ISLAMABAD June 29: The combined opposition’s no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub, submitted to the National Assembly secretary on Saturday, is most likely to come up for debate and vote on July 5, the day President Pervez Musharraf is due to return home from a two-week foreign tour.
An opposition source told Dawn that another no-confidence motion against the speaker was being mulled over, and might be submitted when the NA completes its proceedings on the motion against the deputy speaker.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain, who survived the no-trust resolution on Saturday when both the treasury and opposition members abstained from voting, will preside over the NA session which will debate and decide on the no-trust motion against his junior.
The opposition had filed the no-confidence motion, signed by 110 MNAs, against Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub soon after its leaders addressed a joint news conference on Saturday.
The fresh opposition move, including that of convening of an All-Party Conference by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in Lahore, means there will be no resumption of government-opposition talks on constitutional matters for another week as promised by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
Mr Jamali had said on Saturday that his government was ready to convene a meeting of parliamentary party heads to resolve the constitutional issues, but added that there will be no talk on the Legal Framework order (LFO) which, in his view, had become part of the Constitution after the speaker’s ruling.
If Saturday is counted as a working day for the receipt of no-confidence motion, seven days will complete on July 4 (Friday), and if the day of submission of the motion is not considered as a full day, then the NA session may be summoned on July 5.
The combined opposition, particularly the MMA, appeared intent on pressing the Jamali government even harder without giving it sufficient time to put its house in order.
According to inside sources, the ‘angry’ lawmakers in the coalition, who want ministerial slots and would settle for no less, were on Friday night promised that they would be inducted in the cabinet in its second expansion when Gen Pervez Musharraf returns home.
Their promised induction will however be delayed due to Gen Musharraf’s return on the day when the NA will already be in session.
The opposition leaders in their talks with the press on Saturday had claimed that their no-confidence motion against the speaker had forced the Jamali government to offer numerous perks, including the offices of parliamentary secretaries and house committee chairmen.
The sources claimed that a number of coalition partners were reluctant to accept anything less than the ministerial slots, and were accordingly promised induction in the cabinet.
However, the official sources said no more than six to seven persons could be inducted in the expanded cabinet, and the ruling PML(Q) lawmakers will have to make do with whatever was available after the coalition partners were accommodated.
So far, the government side has finalized 13 names for house standing committee chairmen. Some others have been promised posts of parliamentary secretary.
The decision on the remaining 25 house committee chairmen is likely to be taken before the next no-confidence motion, the sources said. The decision to appoint an MNA as chairman of the Kashmir committee had become a bone of contention for the government.
There were a number of contenders for the most important slot, the sources maintained.
