ISLAMABAD: Oppo­sition parties have decided to move a joint petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking safe passage for parliamentarians who intend to cast their vote on a no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl will file the petition on Wednesday (today) in the IHC, PML-N Senator Azam Nazir Tarrar said on Tuesday.

The legal team representing the joint opposition consists of senior lawyers — senators Tarrar, Farooq H. Naek and Kamran Murtaza.

The main prayer in the petition is to seek a directive for the federal government and Islamabad administration to give safe passage and uninterrupted access to the lawmakers to the Parliament House.

The petition points out that it is a constitutional right of every parliamentarian to cast vote in accordance with his/her conscience. It says that the government may be directed not to subvert the constitutional remedy of casting vote against the sitting prime minister.

The voting on the no-confidence motion is likely to take place on March 28.

Opposition leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Azam Tarrar visited the IHC for necessary biometric verification required prior to filing of the writ petition.

The opposition parties had submitted the no-confidence motion on March 8.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2022