Many consider the prestigious office of Speaker of the National Assembly as stress-free and easy-going. Just ask the incumbent Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. All one knows, the poor man is in a bind these days.

Instead of commanding respect from all political parties, as parliamentary traditions demand, Sardar Ayaz has become controversial because the Constitution asks him to act one way and his PML-N party the other way.

This situation has been persisting for the speaker since the PTI MNAs resigned en bloc in late August to take the crisis their leader Imran Khan had created for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the streets into the National Assembly.

Imran Khan and PTI are still out in the streets pushing for the resignation of the prime minister and midterm elections. Naturally, PM Nawaz Sharif is in no mood to oblige them by accepting the PTI MNAs. Why should he when he has survived the onslaught mounted by the PTI and PAT of Dr Tahirul Qadri with the support of all other political parties and the civil society at large.

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, however, remains under pressure from both sides – one demanding to go by the rules and accept the PTI resignations, and the other advising him not to do so.

On October 29, he betrayed that pressure when he refused to receive collectively the PTI MNAs who had arrived at his office to verify their resignation. His deputy negotiated with the PTI MNAs for a compromise outside while Sardar Sadiq chose to explain his conduct at a news conference.

Already a rare thing to do for a speaker, he gave an hour-long interview to a private TV channel the same night to clarify his position.

Political observers say the speaker is all powerful and rules don’t bind him to confirm resignations by members individually.

As bad luck would have it, PTI is breathing down his neck in other ways too. Sardar Sadiq’s very election to the National Assembly is in question. He won his seat from the Lahore constituency NA-122 against Imran Khan, his old college mate and party leader before he joined PML-N in 2000.

NA-122 is one of the four constituencies which the PTI had famously demanded to be probed to determine whether last general elections were rigged or conducted in a free and fair manner.

And the Election Commission Tribunal is to hear on November 7 the petition filed by Imran Khan, which seeks re-counting and re-verification of votes. Thus, Speaker Sadiq cannot be non-partisan in his dealings with the PTI chief even when his office demands him to be non-partisan.

This puts him in an equally unwanted situation as did the issue of resignations of the PTI lawmakers. Under normal circumstances, accepting the resignations should have been a routine matter for any speaker of the National Assembly. But Sardar Sadiq finds himself in a corner.

Other parliamentary political parties share the ruling PML-N’s view that accepting the collective PTI resignations will deepen the political crisis in the country. Though the rules don’t bind Speaker Sadiq to act one way or the other, he is clearly following the line of the government, for which he is harangued daily by the PTI chairman from his shipping container platform at D-Chowk.

Speaker Sadiq has argued that Rule 43 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of business of the National Assembly bind to have personal confirmation by the resigning MNA that he/she is under no pressure to quit membership of the house.

Whereas, constitutional experts, like S.M Zafar, refer to Article 64 of the Constitution according to which a mere serving of notice by a member of the assembly is enough for the speaker to accept the resignation.

It looks incredulous that the PTI is approaching court of law for acceptance of their resignations.

Regardless of the outcome of the political stand-off between the government and PTI on the issue, the sad thing is that the office of the speaker National Assembly has become controversial.

One can imagine the devastating repercussions for the existing democratic dispensation in case Imran Khan wins his battle against Sardar Sadiq in the election tribunal. After all as Speaker of the National Assembly, he is custodian of the house of 342 members.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2014