No-trust move: NA Secretariat advises speaker to summon session by March 22, say sources

• Sources say NA Speaker Asad Qaiser has been suggested to call assembly meeting any day before March 22.
• Say verification of signatures of Opposition's MNAs on motion and requisition for assembly session completed.
• Say none of signatures were found to be suspicious.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Secretariat has advised Speaker Asad Qaiser to summon a session before March 22 after declaring the that the Opposition's no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran is filed as per the rules, sources told Geo News Sunday.

Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, shared that summoning a session is a constitutional requirement that cannot be disregarded.

Sources privy to the matter said that the verification of the signatures of the Opposition's MNAs on the motion and requisition for convening an assembly session has been completed.

They said that none of the signatures were found to be suspicious or against the rules, after which the secretariat forwarded the file to the NA speaker.

According to sources, the first phase was the verification of signatures on the requisition and the second was the verification of signatures on the no-trust motion.

Opposition submits no-trust motion against PM Imran Khan

The Opposition had submitted the no-confidence motion against PM Imran Khan in the NA Secretariat last Tuesday.

A total of 86 lawmakers from the Opposition parties signed the no-confidence motion, sources said.

JUI-F's Shahida Akhtar Ali, PML-N's Khawaja Saad Rafique, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Saad Rafique and PPP's Naveed Qamar and Shazia Marri submitted the no-trust motion and requisition for a session to the NA Secretariat.

Currently, the government has a 17-member lead over the Opposition but the latter has claimed that it has enough support to prove that PM Imran Khan no more commands the people's trust.