Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani has called on the National Assembly (NA) speaker and Senate chairman to appoint opposition leaders in both houses of Parliament, saying that leaving the posts vacant “sidelines dissent”.

The posts have been lying vacant since August last year, when then-opposition leaders in the NA and Senate — PTI’s Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz — were disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan following their conviction in cases related to riots on May 9, 2023.

The PTI has nominated Pakhtun­khwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai as the opposition leader for the NA and Majlis Wahdat-i-Musl­imeen’s Allama Raja Nasir Abbas for the Senate slot, but their notification remains pending.

Rabbani pointed out in a statement on Monday that “Parliament is incomplete”, adding that “this exposes a contradiction in our democracy”.

“We talk of the supremacy of Parliament, yet less inclined to uphold this principle,” he added.

Saying that the “political system is already strained by polarisation”, he said the NA speaker and Senate chairperson should, under the rules, appoint leaders of the opposition, “as leaving the offices vacant sidelines dissent”.

“Such steps go towards weakening Parliament, a self-made disaster in a hybrid democracy,” he asserted.

As far as the appointment of the opposition leader in the NA is concerned, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said on Monday that the process would be initiated afresh.

He said this during a meeting with PTI Chief Whip Amir Dogar, who called on him to discuss the unusual delay in the opposition leader’s appointment.

Sadiq told Dogar that the rules on the matter were clear.

For his part, Dogar presented documents confirming the withdrawal of cases involving former Ayub from the courts.

He also reiterated demand for Achakzai to be appointed as the opposition leader.

In response, Sadiq emphasised that all proceedings would be conducted strictly in accordance with rules, laws, and the Constitution. He said he would inform the House about this matter in the upcoming session of the National Assembly.

The development came around a month after the NA Secretariat sent a letter to Dogar, seeking details about the status of cases concerning Ayub. The letter said the provision of details in writing was necessary for completing the process for appointing an opposition leader in the lower house of parliament.

Ayub had challenged his disqualification in the Supreme Court (SC), but withdrew his plea in October last year, and the election on the seat that fell vacant due to his disqualification was also held and won by a PML-N candidate.

For his part, Sadiq had maintained that the matter related to appointment of a new opposition leader was “sub judice” — apparently a reference to Ayub’s appeal against his disqualification.

In its letter to Dogar last month, the NA Secretariat had stated that the opposition had mentioned in Parliament that Ayub’s cases were not sub judice.

“However, this fact was not conveyed to the secretariat in writing,” the letter said, requesting that the current status of the cases in which the secretariat had been made a party be communicated to it in writing for the completion of the “prescribed process of the declaration of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly”.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Dogar, the NA Speaker confirmed the receipt of documents pertaining to Ayub’s cases. Sadiq said that four letters had been sent to the opposition’s chief whip in this regard. He said that after the fourth letter, the opposition had submitted a certified copy of the decision.

“The constitutional process for the appointment of the next opposition leader will be initiated in the next parliamentary session,” Sadiq said. He added the process would move forward “after checking and verification of the signatures of the opposition members”.