ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said that every member of the National Assembly has a right of vote and no one can deprive him/her of it.

Addressing a news conference, Sindh government spokesman Barrister Murtaza Wahab along with Central Information Secretary of PPP-P Shazia Atta Marri and Deputy Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi said that members of the National Assembly cannot be deprived of their right of vote.

He said that Article 63A (4) makes it clear that he/she is a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) until the Election Commission of Pakistan de-seats him/her. He added that Article 55 makes it clear that the Member National Assembly shall exercise the right to vote in his presence.

“Neither the Speaker nor any parliamentary leader has the power to prevent an honourable member from right of voting. According to the last part of the second schedule of Constitution, the voting on no-confidence motion against the prime minister will be conducting through the counting division,” he said.

Marri said that we are aware that such efforts are being made and added that the speaker National Assembly should avoid unparliamentarily measure, otherwise, he would be remembered in bad words in parliamentary history.

She said, “Imran Khan has completely “lost his mental balance”. Imran Niazi is proving his bewilderment by talking about immorality. Who is Imran Khan talking about animals? The elected prime minister is so upset that he has come down to abuses,” she claimed.

Kundi said, “If the government thinks that Ansarul Islam is banned then why it keeps eyes closed? If such an organisation comes here today, then terrorists may come to the Parliament tomorrow. Is this government’s security?”

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said in her statement, “The prime minister needs to take a long hard look at the cronies that he surrounds himself with, as well as his sycophantic legal team which is misleading him due to their expedient but incorrect interpretation of the Constitution. It needs to be categorically clarified to both the government and the people that the constitution does not give the speaker the power to disqualify a member before voting. No one can stop a member from coming to parliament either. The speaker can neither prevent members from voting nor can he disqualify them before the voting. A Member of Parliament can be disqualified by the Election Commission at the request of the party head, which is a process that takes 30 days. However, the Speaker does not hold the authority to do so, as per the constitution. This is another desperate, thinly veiled tactic by the government to create a constitutional crisis within the country, rather than addressing the issue at hand: the nation’s complete lack of faith in the PM.”

She said, “In another unprecedented move, the government has announced that its lawmakers will not be attending the no-confidence vote. The government is also trying everything in its power to delay voting, which will only lead to more chaos in the country and could seriously endanger the lives of the parliamentarians on both sides.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022