PPP’s Raja Pervez may be elected NA Speaker today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf today (Saturday) is likely to be elected unopposed as Speaker of the National Assembly following the likely success of no-confidence resolution against Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri, it is learnt.

PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has submitted his nomination papers for the post of Speaker of the National Assembly. Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah and Syed Naveed Qamar are the proposer and seconder of Raja Pervez Ashraf respectively.

No one else has filed nomination papers for the post of the speaker of the National Assembly. On the other hand, the time for submission of nomination papers for the speaker of the National Assembly has also expired.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser had stepped down from office of the speaker on April 9 on the day, Islamabad witnessed intense political activities when the voting on the no-confidence resolution against then Prime Minister Imran Khan was set to take place.

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But Qaiser being a PTI and Imran Khan loyalist delayed the session as much as he could before resigning minutes before midnight, as the Supreme Court’s deadline for holding the vote on the no-confidence resolution was about to end.

Following his resignation, MNA Ayaz Sadiq of the PML-N chaired the session, and on April 10 at midnight, Khan was voted out of power, making him the first prime minister to be ousted through a democratic process.

A session of the National Assembly regarding the no-confidence resolution against Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri has been scheduled to take place today (Saturday) at 12 ‘o’ clock.

On Wednesday, in a bid to delay the election of the speaker, Qasim Suri had used his special powers as acting speaker under the rules and had changed the date of the National Assembly session from April 16 to April 22.

According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the voting on the no-confidence resolution against the deputy speaker will take place today (Saturday) while the election and oath-taking ceremony of the new speaker will also be held on the same day.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022