QUETTA, Dec 24: Balochistan Assembly Speaker Aslam Bhootani said on Monday he might move court if “unconstitutional voting” on a no-confidence motion against him was held in the provincial assembly on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, he said the Constitution had been violated while presenting the motion. “The motion was presented against me after I took the stand that since the Supreme Court has declared the Balochistan government unconstitutional, I will not preside over the assembly session until the status of the provincial government is not clear.”

Mr Bhootani said that Chief Minister Aslam Raisani was backing the movers of the motion. “The tactics of the Balochistan government will not deter me from my principled stand.”

He said that according to Rule 11 a member could give a no-trust motion notice under Article 53 Sub-clause 7, but in his case the senior minister gave the notice to the assembly secretary. According to rules and regulations of the assembly, only a member could move a no-trust motion against the speaker and a minister had no right to table it because members did not include the chief minister, speaker, deputy speaker and ministers, he added.

Mr Bhootani said voting on a no-trust motion could not be held during a assembly session called by the governor on the advice of the chief minister because only the speaker was “entitled under Article 54, Sub-Clause (3) of the Constitution to call in session of the assembly on the matter of no-trust motion”.

In reply to a question, Mr Bhootani said he would not attend the ongoing session of the assembly because he did not recognise the Raisani government as constitutional and legal.

He said Deputy Speaker Syed Matiullah Agha had given a wrong ruling that the assembly secretary had nothing to do with the voting process. “It is the assembly secretary who shall serve notices on members about the motion.”

He said the Raisani government had lost the right to govern because the Supreme Court had declared it unconstitutional.

He said 32 legislators were present in the 65-member assembly when the no-trust motion against him was tabled while under the rules no voting could be held until all members were informed about the move.He said the voting on the motion could not be held because the assembly secretariat had not dispatched notices to any member so far.