ISLAMABAD: The opposition parties on Saturday termed the conduct of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser “partisan” and demanded that he should not preside over the session on the fateful day of voting on the no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The reaction from the opposition parties came in response to a controversial speech by the NA speaker in Swabi in which he defended the premier, declared that PTI members would with full force fight the opposition’s move that he said would fail.

In another significant development, the opposition declared to hold a public meeting at same place and time on the day when the PTI would be holding a rally outside the parliament on the eve of voting on no-trust resolution.

Former NA speaker and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ayaz Sadiq termed speaker’s conduct “extremely prejudicial and partisan” which was in contradiction to his oath for this office.

Anti-PTI bloc claims Alvi to be impeached next, Punjab and KP CMs to be ousted through no-trust votes

Mr Sadiq said if the speaker was so sure that the no-trust motion would fail, he should convene the NA session immediately and allow the members to decide freely by exercising their democratic and constitutional right. He said Mr Qaiser had become controversial by stating that “no-confidence motion will fail” and that it was a “global conspiracy”.

“Who is carrying out this global conspiracy? Where is the evidence?” the ex-speaker questioned.

Talking to reporters, veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Khurshid Shah said it would be better for Speaker Qaiser to resign and vote in support of the prime minister as an ordinary member.

“The speaker has become a party and made all the previous speakers feel ashamed,” he said while announcing that the former would be their next target after toppling the premier.

He also claimed that the opposition had decided to impeach President Dr Arif Alvi after the success of their no-confidence resolution. Moreover, he said, the opposition would move a similar no-trust motion against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan.

Replying to a question about government’s strategy to prevent its members from attending the assembly sitting, Mr Shah said the move would lead the country towards ‘chaos’. “They can’t stop people. This is not a joke. There will be chaos in the country which no one, not even the state, can afford,” he said.

In reply to another query, he said Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, too, was making efforts to make the opposition’s move a success.

About PM Khan’s remarks that only “animals are neutral”, the PPP leader said the statement should be seen in the context of the presser held a day earlier by the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar who had stated the army was neutral. Mr Shah believed it was Mr Khan’s response to the institution.

The PPP leader disclosed the opposition had unanimously decided to hold a public meeting, in response to the PTI’s gathering, for which they would give the call to people to assemble at the same venue and time.

In a series of tweets, PTI Senator Faisal Javed Khan spelled out government’s strategy, saying PM Khan has given the nation a call for a historic rally to be held outside the parliament in Islamabad a day before the vote on no-trust resolution. He said men, women, youth, elderly and families would attend the rally, adding that a large number of overseas Pakistan have already started reaching Islamabad. The PM would announce the line of action to be adopted after the failure of the opposition’s no-trust move, the senator said.

Expressing concern over what he said speaker’s clear inclination towards the government, PPP’s parliamentarian Syed Naveed Qamar said as the opopositon did not trust him anymore, the sitting of the assembly on the day of voting on no-confidence motion should be presided over by a “non-controversial and unbiased speaker”.

Also, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said by no stretch of imagination could the speaker make such blatantly partisan statements. “This is a constitutional instrument he (speaker) is trying to obstruct. This act by itself renders him unfit to preside over any such session,” she said.

“Is he a PTI office-bearer or a speaker of the National Assembly where he is supposed to safeguard the integrity of the outcome by remaining neutral? By saying that the vote of no confidence will be defeated Asad Qaiser has betrayed his office, and in my view, cannot possibly preside over the house or process,” she added.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2022