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Friday March 29, 2024

NA speaker unlikely to be elected unchallenged

ISLAMABAD: Despite the desire and efforts of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will not be reelected unchallenged as speaker of the National Assembly as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is poised to field its candidate against him.Under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National

By Tariq Butt
October 17, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Despite the desire and efforts of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Sardar Ayaz Sadiq will not be reelected unchallenged as speaker of the National Assembly as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is poised to field its candidate against him.
Under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, the election will be held by secret ballot. Those who suspect existence of serious dissensions within the ruling party against its top leadership will find an opportunity to see the result of the vote count that is unexpected to be different from the past.
The second largest force in the National Assembly, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has announced to take its decision on the question of Ayaz Sadiq’s reelection at an appropriate time. It may also put up its own contestant in the race to give a lie to the charge of a perennial deal with the PML-N.
However, any cooperation between the two main opposition parties, the PPP and PTI, in this election is ruled out, considering the animosity prevailing between them. The overall strength of the two forces put together comes to around seventy including forty-six PPP MPs. Even if they marshal their numbers together, they are unlikely to give any tough fight to Ayaz Sadiq because of the convincing hold of the ruling party over the legislature.
While Ayaz Sadiq will get no helping hand from the PTI in his reelection as speaker for obvious reasons, he will receive the long-awaited congratulations from Imran Khan on his victory in NA-122. The felicitations will be unprecedented as he has so far received only brickbats, derision, contempt, scorn and disdain from the PTI chief for having defeated him.
There is hardly any other party that would oppose Ayaz Sadiq’s bid for the simple reasons that there are no parliamentary takers of the PTI’s politics. Rather everyone is staunchly opposed to it.
In addition, while performing as speaker for over two years, Ayaz Sadiq did not give rise to acrimony with any party but instead tried to keep everyone in good humour because of his amicable personality and handling. In spite of attracting unabated uncharitable attacks from the PTI, he did not accept the resignations of its lawmakers, earning flak from different quarters, which argued that he was acting against the Constitution and law.
Ayaz Sadiq is indeed a lucky man, who is being reelected precisely two months after he stepped down as speaker in the wake of the ruling of a Lahore election tribunal that unseated him on a petition filed by Imran Khan. His reelection in October 11 by-poll vindicated his and his party’s stand that the 2013 parliamentary polls were fair, just and rigging-free.
He and the PML-N had embarked on a risky path by opting for fresh election instead of seeking relief from the Supreme Court, which was likely to be forthcoming as it has been happening in such cases. They had acted against the universal practice of Pakistani politicians to remain glued to their offices even when faced with highly adverse developments.
Though unrelated, way back in the 80s the then Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo had voted out Fakhar Imam as speaker for sending a disqualification reference to the Election Commission of Pakistan against him and dozens of his other party lawmakers for creating a political party after having been elected on non-party basis in the 1985 general elections. After that, Fakhar Imam has been in the political wilderness. In his place, Hamid Nasir Chattha was chosen as the speaker.
With Ayaz Sadiq’s reelection in the last week of the current month, the National Assembly will also come out of its ‘suspended animation’. Since his resignation, it was not convened by the government as it was waiting for the by-poll because a new speaker had to be instantly elected in the new session after the occurrence of the vacancy under the rules. As a stopgap, the deputy speaker has been officiating as the acting speaker.
As per the rules, whenever the office of the speaker or his deputy becomes vacant, an election to fill that slot ‘shall’ be held if the National Assembly is in session as soon as possible during it; and if it is not in session, at the commencement of its next sitting.
Thus, it was not obligatory for the ruling party to immediately elect the new speaker after Ayaz Sadiq’s exit.As the government did not want to have anyone as speaker other than Ayaz Sadiq, it refrained from convening the National Assembly for two months. Its last sitting was held in August. There were also no demands from any opposition party to summon it.