Pakistan: Opposition Submits No-confidence Motion Against NA Deputy Speaker

Islamabad, April 9:  Pakistan Opposition on Friday submitted a no-confidence motion against National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri. Murtaza Javed Abbasi of PML-N submitted the motion to the Secretary of the National Assembly. According to the resolution, the Deputy Speaker had “repeatedly violated the rules, parliamentary practices, democratic norms and traditions, and even Constitutional provisions and when presiding over the House, failed to conduct proceedings in an orderly manner to enable productive debate on issues of public importance”. “Instead of performing his role fairly and impartially, the Deputy Speaker has acted in a blatantly partisan manner invariably favouring the government, especially in passing legislation, and has frequently deprived the Opposition members of their inherent, democratic right to speak and voice their views and the views of their electorate,” the document read, reported Geo News. Referring to the April 3 incident, when Suri dismissed the no-trust resolution against PM Imran terming it contradictory to Article 5 of the Constitution, the opposition mentioned in the resolution that the Deputy Speaker passed a ruling, rejecting the resolution for a vote of no-confidence against Khan, which had been filed under Article 95(1) of the Constitution on March 8, 2022. The resolution stated that the deputy speaker “wilfully and mala fidely subverted the Constitution” and his actions fell under the purview of Article 6, which is related to treason. As per Geo News report, last week, the Opposition had also submitted a no-confidence motion against National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser. More than 100 lawmakers from the Opposition parties have signed the no-confidence motion, including Ayaz Sadiq, Khursheed Shah, PPP’s Naveed Qamar and JUI-F’s Shahida Akhtar Ali.