Suri waves controversial ‘letter’ in NA, to send it to SC

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly acting speaker Qasim Suri Monday waved the controversial ‘letter’ in the House, announcing that he was sending it in a sealed envelope to the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

“I decided to reject the no-confidence resolution against Imran Khan as a patriotic Pakistani and as the custodian of the House,” he said.

However, he refused to conduct the process for election of prime minister and invited Sardar Ayaz Sadiq fromthe panel of chairmen to chair the session. “My conscience does not permit me to conduct elections in the present circumstances,” he said.

Later, he sprang a surprise following address of Shehbaz Sharif to the National Assembly after his election as the Leader of the House. As Sardar Ayaz Sadiq invited Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to take the floor, Suri entered the assembly hall, reoccupied his chair and adjourned the proceedings till April 16.

At the outset of proceedings, the acting speaker said that the federal cabinet and parliamentary committee on national security, after going through the cipher received from a foreign state, reached the conclusion that no-confidence resolution against Imran Khan was an international conspiracy. He said the federal cabinet meeting, held on April 9, decided to de-classify the letter and the same was also handed over to Speaker Asad Qaisar.