National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Monday sought proposals for the nomination of the opposition leader in the lower house of Parliament.
The seat has been vacant since August 7, following the disqualification of PTI’s Omar Ayub by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). While the opposition has accused the government of delaying the appointment despite them putting forward Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s name for the role, Sadiq has maintained that the delay was because the matter was sub judice.
At the outset of Monday’s session, Sadiq reiterated his stance that he could not initiate the nomination process earlier as the matter was sub judice and the NA Secretariat had been made a party to the case.
He said that after PTI’s Omar Ayub, the previous NA opposition leader, withdrew his petitions in the Supreme Court and high courts against his removal, the nomination process could now be formally initiated.
“This issue had to head towards resolution only then. We would have done so if we had not been made a party [to the case],” Sadiq said.
Addressing the opposition benches, he said the proposals for nominating the opposition leader may be submitted in his chambers by 3pm today.
The opposition had already submitted the name of Achakzai – who heads the opposition alliance TTAP, to the speaker’s office rather than presenting it to the speaker personally.
Responding to him on the assembly floor, Dogar said he had submitted an application with the signatures of 76 opposition MNAs keeping in view Rule 39.
Meanwhile, the ruling PML-N faced an embarrassment on the opening day of the new NA session when its key ally, the PPP, staged a walkout to register its protest over the alleged government move to issue an ordinance without President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent.
The issue was raised by PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar while speaking on a point of order.
“For the first time in Pakistan’s black legislative history, an ordinance has been promulgated without the approval or the signature of the president, which is shameful, against the Constitution,” he alleged, without specifying the said ordinance.
The PPP leader said that they had not seen such a practice even during military dictatorships.
The NA speaker gave the floor to Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar to explain, but Qamar refused to hear it and led the walkout by his party members. Tarar requested the PPP lawmakers to return to the assembly, but to no avail.
He explained that an ordinance was issued on advice and “there is no doubt that the president has to assent it [sic]”.
“We don’t say that we are going to pass an ordinance which has not been assented by the president. […] There is something circulating on social media,” Tarar said, adding that he would take up the issue with his ministry and would then inform the house.
The law minister affirmed that the government had always respected the president.
He noted that “nine or 10 bills and ordinances” were pending presidential assent, and the ministry came to know only on Sunday that President Zardari had given his assent to those bills.
“Maybe it is a part of that or not a part of that,” Tarar added.
He further highlighted that even though bills passed in a joint sitting were deemed to have been assented after 10 days without the president’s assent, the government had not applied that provision to certain legislation that had been pending approval for about a month.
While Sadiq requested the law minister to go and bring back the PPP lawmakers to the assembly, PPP MNA Hussain Tariq returned to the house only to point out the lack of quorum.
After a headcount, the NA speaker suspended the proceedings due to a lack of quorum.
Subsequently, the session was adjourned till 11am on Tuesday, according to the NA’s official X account.