MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) plans to get its regional chapter’s president, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, elected as the new Azad Kashmir prime minister were dashed after the region’s high court put the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly on hold until Monday on the opposition’s plea.

Shortly after the house met with speaker Chaudhry Anwarul Haq in the chair, the treasury legislator Abdul Majid Khan called for suspension of Rule 15 (1) of the Rules of Procedure, which stipulates a gap of two days between the filing of the nomination papers and voting for the prime minister’s election. Amid ruckus by the opposition, the treasury members voted in favour of the suspension of the rule but the opposition did not budge.

On being persuaded by the chair, the opposition lawmakers settled in their seats and expressed themselves on points of order, one after the other.

They maintained that since the session had been convened by the speaker under Article 27(4) of Constitution to hold voting on a no-trust resolution against [the then] Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, it had become infructuous after the latter’s resignation from the office on Thursday evening. They also cited Article 16(3) of the Constitution and said a session ought to be summoned afresh by the president.

While the opposition lawmakers emphatically stated that the assembly was not in session on April 14, when Mr Niazi had resigned, the treasury members kept on pressing an otherwise argument, with pleas to the chair to initiate the election process without waste of time.

Amid arguments and cou­nter arguments from both sides until 1pm, the speaker adjourned the session with a direction to the LA secretary to proceed with the issuance of schedule for election of the leader of the house.

In the meanwhile, the opposition lawmakers had already filed a petition in the high court, whereby they pleaded that the speaker and other respondents should be restrained from initiating any proceedings of the assembly on Friday to hold the election to the office of prime minister.

In its short order, the bench comprising Justice Syed Shahid Bahar and Justice Sardar Ejaz Khan held that since the matter pertained to the interpretation of Article 16 of the Constitution it required to be dealt with and [subsequently] adjudicated by a larger bench.

The bench asked the respondents to come up with para-wise comments and an entire record of the matter on Monday, restraining them from any proceedings regarding election of the prime minister until then.

After receiving the high court order, the counsel for the PTI regional chief rushed to the Supreme Court and filed a petition for leave to appeal (PLA) there at about 4:30pm. However, since Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram was not holding the court on Friday due to ill health, on his direction the case was deferred till 10am on Saturday to be placed before the full court for arguments.

In the meanwhile, speaker Haq adjourned the session until 10:30am on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022