In an unprec-edented move in Pakistan's legislative history, the Senate is likely to vote today (Thursday) to decide about the future of its Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani who is facing a no-confidence motion moved by the joint opposition. The House's today session (292nd in number) has been summoned by President Dr Arif Alvi to take up one-point agenda; voting on no-confidence motion against Sanjrani. Under the rules, a chairman Senate cannot preside over the session in which no-confidence motion is to be considered against him and the President has appointed Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to act as presiding officer of the 292nd session.
The voting on the no-confidence motion is to be carried out through secret ballot under the Rule 12 (10) of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012.
Earlier on Monday, addressing a press conference, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati had said that Senate had seven days to vote on no-confidence motion (after August 1) in the light of relevant constitutional provisions. This had mounted the concerns of opposition parties which saw this announcement as an indication by the government to delay the voting on the motion.
The Rule 12 (3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012 allows seven-day period to consider the no-confidence motion after related notice has been circulated, by the chairman Senate, to the senators, intimating them about the motion. Rule 12 (3) reads, "The motion for leave to move the resolution shall be entered in the names of the members concerned in the Orders of the Day for the first working day after the expiry of seven days from the date of the receipt of the notice-."
However, the opposition parties say that the notice to officially intimate the senators about the no-confidence motion was circulated among the senators by the chairman Senate on July 16, which implies that the seven-day notice period was completed on July 23.
A well-placed source in Senate Secretariat told Business Recorder that the presiding officer of today's session has the authority to either proceed to hold voting on the no-confidence motion or prorogue the Senate session in the light of the Rule 12 (3) to wait for the expiry of seven-day before the voting. In case the session is prorogued, the President will have to summon afresh the Senate session (293rd session) to vote on the no-confidence motion after seven days have passed, the source said. The President will then have to appoint a new presiding officer to carry out proceedings of no-confidence motion, it is learnt.
"The presiding officer has both the options; either to go for voting straightway or to prorogue the session till next week. But if he goes for the second option, it will attract opposition's outrage, since it will give the impression that treasury benches are using delaying tactics to keep the no-confidence motion lingering because they are not in position to foil the motion," the insider said.
Early on July 23, the Senate met hardly for 15 minutes to discuss one-point agenda, removal of chairman Senate. Sanjrani, who was presiding over the Senate session, did not allow the opposition to present the no-confidence motion, citing the related rules that bar moving no-confidence motion at the start of a Senate session.
During the house proceedings, Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafar-ul-Haq had said that the opposition does not want to debate the no-confidence motion and instead wants that the motion be voted. Addressing the chair, he said, "Mr chairman, we want to present the no-confidence motion and voting on the motion today but you have summoned the Senate session under Rule 218 (of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012) to debate the matter instead of voting. We don't want any debate. We demand that the session be prorogued till voting."
The chairman Senate then prorogued the session after he issued a ruling on procedure regarding the removal from office of the chairman or the deputy chairman. In the written ruling, Sanjrani said that in the light of the Rule 12 (1) and Rule 12 (2) of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, the notice seeking permission for moving no-confidence motion against chairman or deputy chairman Senate can only be moved during an ongoing session of the Senate and the Senate session cannot be called specifically to move a resolution seeking permission for no-confidence motion. The chairman Senate's ruling cited the aforementioned rules to justify the decision not to grant permission to present no-confidence motion on July 23.
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