No-trust motion: Speaker’s powers not unlimited, says AG Khalid

• AG Khalid says speaker would have to hold voting on no-trust resolution in 7 days once moved in assembly.
• "The way the voting is held is an internal matter of the House,” he says.
• He clarifies that there is no chance of voting on the day the no-confidence motion is moved.

ISLAMABAD: Amid the ongoing controversy regarding the no-confidence motion, Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan on Wednesday said the powers of the National Assembly speaker "were not unlimited", The News reported.

Speaking on Geo News programme Capital Talk, he said that the speaker would have to hold voting on the no-trust resolution in seven days once moved in the assembly.

Read more: Asad Qaiser vows to run assembly proceeding as per Article 95

Disagreeing with the notion that a constitutional crisis will be witnessed if the speaker fails to conduct voting. the attorney-general said that voting would take place as it could not be withheld for an indefinite period.

“The way the voting is held is an internal matter of the House”, the AG observed. He, however, said there was no chance of voting on the day the no-confidence motion is moved.

Khan said the opinion of the Supreme Court would certainly have an effect, but the process of no-trust motion would not stop. “We did not seek a stay to stop the proceedings of the House”, he said.

Read more: Can NA speaker disregard dissident MNAs' votes?

In another TV programme a day earlier, the AG said that the vote of dissidents should be allowed to be cast under Article 95 of the constitution regardless of the consequences.

He concurred with the anchor that in plain view, such a vote should be counted.

“And the ground that such a vote is barred under Article 63A may not be sufficient, but it has to be debated,” the attorney-general added.

Khan explained that if the framers of the constitution had envisaged that a ruling party member could not vote on a no-confidence motion, they would have provided so in Article 85. 

— Thumbnail image of Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan is a file photo from APP