Choosing NA opposition leader prerogative of parliamentarians, not speaker’s: Naveed Qamar
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Member of the National Assembly Naveed Qamar said on Thursday that the speaker of the house did not have the right to decide who would be the leader of the opposition, as it was the prerogative of the parliamentarians.
After receiving approval from the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, the PTI in October formally nominated Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas to lead the opposition in the NA and Senate, respectively. However, the government has not yet formally recognised the nominations, with NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq terming the matter “sub judice”.
In an interview with Nadir Guramani on the Dawn News TV programme Doosra Rukh on Thursday evening, Qamar said that it was not the authority of the speaker to decide not to act upon the nomination.
“At one time it was definitely the entitlement of the speaker,” he said, referring to 2002, when Maulana Fazlur Rehman was made the opposition leader instead of the PPP’s Amin Fahim, even though the PPP had a greater representation in the house, “which was manifestly not politically correct”.
“After that, we changed the Rules of Procedure,” he said, adding that under the new rules, “whoever votes against during the election of the leader of the house becomes the opposition bloc.”
In this opposition bloc, Qamar added, whoever had the most members submits the nomination and “that person will be made the leader of the opposition”.
“So, this is not the discretion of the speaker,” he said. “Whoever has the majority among (opposition) members — it is in their hands, and whoever they decide on, that person should be the opposition leader.”
The nominations of Achakzai and Abbas came after the Election Commission of Pakistan in August disqualified PTI’s Omar Ayub Khan as the NA opposition leader and Shibli Faraz from the same role in the Senate, along with other opposition MNAs and MPAs, following their convictions in May 9 cases.
Ex-premier Imran had in October voiced concern over the government’s continued delay in officially recognising his party’s nominees.
