ISLAMABAD: PPP’s senior leader Raja Pervez Ashraf is set to be elected unopposed as the Speaker of National Assembly. PTI did not field its candidate for the slot of NA Speaker. PML(N) leader Ayaz Sadiq has filed his nomination papers for the seat of NA Speaker, but party sources said that he would resign before election and Raja Pervez Ashraf will be elected unopposed today.
PTI leader Qasim Suri has resigned from the office of the National Assembly deputy speaker, sources said Saturday, hours before a no-confidence motion was scheduled to be tabled against him.
Following his resignation, according to sources, the no-confidence motion holds no value, while the newly-elected speaker will decide on whether to accept the resignation or not.
In line with the NA rules, immediately after the election of the speaker, the assembly shall proceed to elect a deputy speaker and once elected, he will take oath before the assembly before entering office.
PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf next NA speaker
The National Assembly will meet today at 12pm instead of April 22, to elect the new speaker. Friday’s circular to hold the session on Saturday was issued in supersession of an earlier circular, which was issued on April 13, on the directive of the acting speaker Qasim Suri.
But while uncertainty surrounds the deputy speaker’s slot, PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is set to take oath as the NA speaker today — and the former premier will get elected unopposed.
PPP leaders Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar had signed nomination papers as proposer and seconder.
In a political manoeuvre, according to sources, PML-N MNA Ayaz Sadiq submitted his nomination papers for the speaker’s office and will withdraw them two minutes before the deadline of withdrawing the papers.
The name of the new speaker would be announced by the presiding officer on the floor of the house. The new speaker, after his election, will also take the oath of his office on Saturday.
The NA speaker’s office fell vacant on April 9 when PTI’s Asad Qaiser resigned, stating that he can not hold voting on the no-confidence against the then-prime minister Imran Khan, which he termed, was a part of a “foreign conspiracy” against the PTI government.
Qaiser then handed over the chair to PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq, who supervised the process.
Meanwhile, the NA Secretariat has requested PML-N MNA Sadiq to chair today’s session as Suri was facing the no-confidence motion and under the NA Rule 12, he was not eligible to chair the assembly session.
