PESHAWAR: A petitioner has requested the Peshawar High Court to stop the Senate chairman from presiding over the Upper House of Parliament until the final disposal of his pending petition against the last year’s vote of no confidence against the chairman and the deputy chairman.

Shahid Orakzai has filed an application with the high court in a pending petition seeking to declare unconstitutional the last year voting on the resolutions of no-confidence against the Senate chairman and deputy chairman and to order fresh voting on the said resolutions.

He contended that the Senate’s Chairman, for the time being, does not enjoy the confidence of the majority of the House.

The petitioner said that the motion of no confidence against him couldn’t succeed but at the same time he didn’t poll the votes of the majority of the Senate.

He said that the undeniable fact was that a total of 64 members verbally supported the resolution of ‘no confidence’ in the chairman.

The petitioner said that the established fact was that the presiding officer, Senator Mohammad Ali Saif, did poll his unconstitutional and illegal vote in favour of the chairman and that vote cannot be counted at all.

Plea about last year’s vote of no trust against him pending

He claimed that the actual votes polled in support of the chairman only totalled 49.

The petitioner requested the court to fix this application immediately and issue a a stay order by restraining the chairman from presiding over the Senate until the decision on his writ petition.

In the main petition, the petitioner claimed that in the last year voting on the said resolutions, the presiding officer, Senator Mohammad Ali Saif, had played partisan role.

He requested the high court to disqualify Mohammad Ali Saif for the membership of Senate as he was not sadiq and amen in terms of Article 63(1)(F) of the Constitution.

The court was also requested to suspend the membership of Senator Saif and restrain him from attending the proceedings of the Upper House of Parliament.

He contended that the Constitution was clear that to ensure complete neutrality, the person presiding a House “shall not vote except in case of equality of votes.” He, however, said such situation did not emerge on Aug 1, 2019, when the polling on the resolutions took place.

The petitioner contended that the presiding officer instead cast the ballots like other voters on the floor.

Shahid Orakzai contended that presiding officer Mohammad Ali Saif had betrayed neutrality emphasised by Article 55 of the Constitution.

He requested the court to order fresh voting in the Senate on the resolutions of no confidence against its chairman and deputy chairman.

Mr Orakzai argued that in sharp violation of Article 55 of the Constitution, Senator Saif did cast two ballots on resolutions tabled against the chairman and deputy chairman.

The high court was informed that on the very next day of the polling Senator Saif had escorted Sadiq Sanjarani to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020