Daily Times

The crucial National Assembly session to deliberate on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday could hardly continue its course of business for 30 minutes and was adjourned till Monday, March 28.

The session was wrapped up almost immediately after it started with the recitation of Holy Quran with National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair.

Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri offered Fateha for PTI’s deceased MNA from Hangu Khayal Zaman and others who lost their lives during Peshawar and Sibi terror attacks as per Qaiser’s direction. “Since this is the tradition of this House that whenever a respectable member of the assembly passes away, the NA session is adjourned till the next working day in their honour,” Asad Qaiser said.

He said the tradition had been followed nine times in the 12th assembly, four times in the 13th assembly, six times in the 14th assembly and five times in the current assembly.

The NA secretariat had issued a 15-point order of the day for said lower house session at 10:30pm on Thursday with the no-trust motion against PM Imran Khan included on the agenda for the crucial session, alongside other affairs.

Before the start of the session, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the reporters that this would be the day of their victory.

“Today, after three years of hard work, the no-confidence motion has been included in the agenda” he said, adding that going forward, the people of Pakistan will see victory while the “selected” government will face defeat. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif said a strategy will be devised today during the session. Replying to a journalist’s question regarding matters being settled through the backdoor, Shehbaz questioned who said “matters are being settled like this?”

PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari also talked to the journalists before beginning of the session and said “InshaAllah everything will get better” as this is an important turning point of the country’s politics.

On March 23, after accusations of being “biased” and a “party to PM Imran Khan” ahead of the voting on the no-confidence motion against the premier, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had clarified that he would act according to the law and would run the assembly’s proceedings as per Article 95 of the Constitution.

Asad Qaiser had written: “I, as the custodian of the National Assembly of Pakistan, will fulfill my constitutional obligations and will proceed in accordance with Article 95 of the Constitution and rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.”

It was learnt that the PTI political committee suggested that the NA session should be immediately adjourned for an indefinite period after fateha for the departed soul of PTI MNA Khayal Zaman, who died in February.

Some members even advised that the move for the tabling of the no-trust motion should not be allowed on the first day of the session and voting on the motion should also be delayed at least for four to six weeks.