July 5, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4,1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 4: The National Assembly session, called for Monday to take up an opposition move to vote out Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub Khan, is likely to meet the same fate as the one on June 28 when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain survived a move to oust him.

The ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, had ordered its 192 supporters not to vote in an apparent challenge to the 150-seat opposition parties to produce a 172- vote majority needed for the success of their move.

But the opposition parties, which had called the governing alliance’s abstention as a ploy to prevent dissenters from voting against the speaker in a secret ballot, had themselves boycotted the vote to protest against the deputy speaker’s ruling to cut short what could have been a prolonged tirade against the speaker.

The opposition then gave notice to the assembly secretariat the same day for moving a no-confidence resolution against Sardar Yaqub.

The deputy speaker had allowed only the 12 sponsors of the no-confidence resolution and the speaker to make speeches, rejecting the opposition’s demand for permission to party leaders and other members also to have a say on the issue.

The notice for the move against the deputy speaker has been given by 110 opposition members, who eventually will also be the resolution’s sponsors, each of whom is likely to claim a right to speak for at least half an hour.

But it is unclear whether the speaker will allow such a long list of speakers for the debate, which the assembly rules of procedure say must continue uninterrupted until the resolution is voted upon.

The rules allow the mover of a resolution and the speaker or a deputy speaker who is facing the move to speak for 30 minutes or a longer time if permitted by the presiding officer.

But other members cannot speak for more than 15 minutes each unless permitted by the chair.

Parliamentary sources said a dispute could arise on whether all the 110 signatories of the notice against the deputy speaker should be regarded as movers of the resolution.