Countdown starts: Speaker can consume three weeks for final vote

ISLAMABAD: It is not mandatory for a National Assembly session voting on a no-confidence motion to be held in the specified debating hall of the parliament building.

Under the Constitution, it can be held at any place that Speaker Asad Qaiser may choose. Therefore, the pretext that the premises is being renovated to hold a session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is irrelevant in the present situation.

It is also up to the speaker when, within the next 14 days, he will summon the session requisitioned by the opposition parties for open voting on the no-trust resolution. It can be held tomorrow or the speaker could decide to do so on the the14th day – the last day of the deadline.

Belonging to the PTI and being its diehard supporter, it is expected that Asad Qaiser will call the requisitioned session just before the cut-off date. Since assuming office, he has always been harsh on the opposition and accommodating to the government at every possible opportunity.

Article 54(3) says on a requisition signed by “not less than one-fourth of the total membership of the National Assembly, the speaker shall summon the Lower House of Parliament to meet, at such time and place as he thinks fit, within 14 days of the receipt of the requisition; and when he has summoned the assembly, only he may prorogue it.” This means that such a session can’t be prorogued by the president, who generally does so.

Under the rules, a requisition session can’t be prorogued by the speaker unless the no-trust motion has been disposed of one way or the other. Apart from these 14 days, the voting on the resolution will take place not before three days and not later than seven days of its moving in the National Assembly. Again, this is meant to give more time to the government side to make efforts to defeat the motion. The speaker will also allow discussion on the motion during which a lot of mud-slinging is expected.

A total of three weeks -- starting from Tuesday when the resolution was submitted to the National Assembly secretariat -- will be required to deal with it if the speaker is determined to consume the maximum time allowed under the rules and the Constitution. The filing of notice kicked off the countdown to the final vote.

In the present case, the government through the speaker will try to take up the maximum amount of time so that it gets ample opportunity to use its sources and resources to attempt wooing back its estranged members and possible defectors.

The opposition parties’ no-trust motion has been signed only by their own members and no ruling coalition MP has been included among them. The reason is clear – they don’t want to disclose the identity of such government members.

The voting will be held through division. The government's effort will be to keep its members away from the voting and leave it to the sponsors of the motion to produce at least 172 members in favour of the resolution.

Rule 46(4) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly says the powers of the speaker can’t be limited to summon a requisitioned session of the National Assembly to meet at any time under Article 54(3).

The defection clause will apply to the PTI members voting in favour of the no-confidence motion. But that stage will come later after they have cast their votes. The speaker can send references against them to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which has the actual authority to disqualify them. Asad Qaiser can’t stop such members from supporting the resolution.

There are not many instances when MPs have been disqualified by the ECP. Generally, such cases keep dragging on for a long time. The defection clause applies only when a member votes in a no-trust motion or confidence resolution against the policy of his or her party, a constitutional amendment and federal budget.