PESHAWAR, Oct 5: The NWFP government on Friday night sacked six Jamaat-i-Islami ministers who had quit their provincial assembly seats.

“The ministers have been removed from their posts because they are no longer members of the assembly,” said Information Minister and government’s spokesman Asif Iqbal Daudzai.

The government is also believed to be contemplating to table a no-trust motion against Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan. The deputy speaker’s post has been lying vacant for more than a year.

The government led by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam believes that the speaker, who belongs to the JI, played a negative role in the entire episode, starting with the tabling of a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Oct 1.

They believe that he could have suspended relevant rules and provided an opportunity to the chief minister to seek a fresh vote of confidence from the assembly, but instead he helped the opposition group to table a no-confidence resolution.

The ministers removed from the cabinet are: Fazal Rabbani, excise and taxation, Enayatullah Khan, health, planning and development, Hussain Ahmad Kanjo, science and technology, Shahraz Khan, minister for environment, forests and finance, Kashif Azam, population welfare and Hafiz Hashmat, Zakat, Ushr and social welfare.

Under Article 130 of the Constitution, a minister may continue to function for six months after he ceases to be a member of a provincial assembly.

The spokesman said that the chief minister would prove his majority in the house and demonstrate that he did not need JI’s support to run the government.

Voting on the no-confidence motion moved by pro-Musharraf parties would be held on

Oct 8.

Under the Constitution, the governor may ask the chief minister to take a vote of confidence if he believes that the chief minister has lost majority in the house.