PESHAWAR, Oct 6: The ongoing rift between two major components of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal deepened on Saturday when Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) lawmakers filed a no-confidence motion against NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan, who belongs to Jamaat-i-Islami.

JUI (F) lawmakers have accused the Speaker of not cooperating with the treasury and helping the opposition to move a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani. The no-confidence motion against the speaker was moved by nine MPAs.

Chief Minister Durrani also came hard on the speaker and alleged that he never cooperated with the treasury benches during the five-year rule of the MMA in the province.

However, Speaker Bakht Jehan brushed aside the allegations and said that under the Constitution he could not ask the chief minister to take a vote of confidence once opposition had filed a no-confidence resolution against him.

“It was for the first time in the country’s history that the chief minister made an announcement that he would ask the governor to dissolve the assembly on a particular date,” said speaker Bakht Jehan at a hurriedly-called press conference at his official residence.

He recalled that former chief minister Mir Afzal Khan dissolved the Frontier Assembly in 1993, but he did not announce beforehand that he would advise the governor to do so.

He said it all was a pre-planned move by the chief minister to provide proper space to the opposition to submit a no-confidence resolution in order to stop him from advising the governor to dissolve the assembly. He said he had been left with no option but to entertain the opposition’s resolution against the chief minister.

He said the provincial secretary law and advocate-general had advised the chief minister that constitutionally it was not possible for the speaker to bulldoze the opposition’s no-confidence resolution.

“Under the Constitution it was not possible for the chief minister to advise the governor to dissolve the assembly once the opposition had filed a motion against him,” he observed.

About the chief minister’s demand that he should resign, Mr Jehan said he and the chief minister were both nominees of the MMA and if Mr Durrani resigned, he would follow suit.

JUI (F) lawmakers said that Mr Jehan could have suspended the rules and allow the chief minister to get a fresh vote of confidence from the House, but he did not cooperate. They also said that the speaker had saved the assembly from dissolution.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami has expressed dismay over the no-confidence motion tabled by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) against the speaker.

JI’s provincial chief Sirajul Haq said that the Chief Minister should not blame the speaker for his own mistakes.