May 5, 2005	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1426

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LAHORE, May 4: Constitutional experts say a party head and not a parliamentary leader is authorized to file a reference against his party’s MP for unseating him on defection charges. There is no specific procedure for appointing parliamentary leader, as the constitution is silent on the subject. However, the Political Parties Order and conventions define the person, they add.

Comments had been sought on Wednesday from senior lawyers — Senator S.M. Zafar, Abid Hasan Minto, A.K. Dogar and Aitzaz Ahsan, an MNA, on the ‘constitutional lacuna’ pointed out by Punjab Assembly speaker Afzal Sahi. Mr Sahi rejected the PML-N’s references against three of its defectors, saying the constitution was silent on the definition of the parliamentary party.

Senator Zafar said a parliamentary leader is one, who has been appointed by the party for the slot and informed to the presiding officer (speaker/ senate chairman).

If this procedure had not been adopted then the senior-most leader of the party concerned would be considered as the parliamentary leader, he said.

In case of any objection, he said, MPs of the party concerned might be consulted.

Asked if the presiding officer had the right to hold a ‘preliminary hearing’ on a reference before forwarding it to the election commission, Mr Zafar said he had the right to check authority of the person filing the reference.

Messrs Minto and Dogar differed with him, saying the power to establish validity of a reference rested with the commission.

“If the speaker has to do all the job then what is left for the commission to decide,” Mr Minto commented.

Mr Dogar said only the commission had the power to contest validity of a reference, as the speaker had the role of just a post office in this regard.

Mr Minto said the slot of the parliamentary leader was not a constitutional office, so it was not defined in the basic law. Any internal arrangement, like a letter by the party, could be made for the purpose.

Asked if disqualification reference may be filed against Mr Sahi for withholding the PML-N reference and, thus, violating the Clause 63-A of the constitution, Mr Dogar believed that Mr Sahi’s act was prima facie mala fide and a reference could be initiated against him for acting unconstitutionally. He, however, insisted that only the party head and not the parliamentary leader could file a reference against defectors.

Aitzaz Ahsan asserted that a no-trust motion was the only constitutional and democratic procedure to prosecute the speaker for any unlawful act.

However, he wondered how Mr Sahi could de-recognize a man as the parliamentary leader of a party whom he had earlier recognized for the slot.