Following the success of the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister in the National Assembly, the question of electing a new Leader...
Following the success of the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister in the National Assembly, the question of electing a new Leader of the House seems seemingly simple because the Constitution, the laws and the rules and regulations of the National Assembly are quite clear in this regard.
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| If the votes of 2 candidates are equal, then the Speaker shall repeat the voting till one candidate gets the lead of one vote. |
We will divide this article into 2 parts. In the first part, we will clarify the procedure for electing a new Prime Minister in accordance with the constitutional and legal requirements in case of the success of the no-confidence motion. in this
- Assembly proceedings,
- Nomination papers,
- Conditions set for Prime Ministerial candidates,
- Examination of nomination papers, Speaker's powers,
- Voting and
- Vote of confidence
Talk to you soon.
The second part of the article will deal with the current political situation and some legal ambiguities in which we will mention the gaps in the convening of the National Assembly for the election of a new Leader of the House and such examples from the past.
The Speaker is responsible for overseeing the election of the Prime Minister but the opposition is not only criticizing the behavior of the current Speaker but also calling him a violator of the Constitution.
The first part
Assembly proceedings
Under Article 91 (2) of the Constitution, the National Assembly shall convene on the 21st day of the general election unless the President convenes it before then. Article 54 (1) of the Constitution relates to the power of the President to convene a meeting of the National Assembly. Also has the authority to determine.
It is a matter of the President's powers and the convening of a meeting by the President after the general election, but what will happen to the meeting if the no-confidence motion succeeds? This is a question in its place. In this case too, as after the general election, a new Prime Minister is elected and therefore, on this occasion, reference is made to Article 91 of the Constitution, which has its procedure in sub-articles 4 and 5. Article 91 (4) states that "the Prime Minister shall be elected by a majority of the total members of the National Assembly".
The same clause also states that during the election of the Prime Minister, if any one candidate fails to get the said majority in the first ballot, then there will be a contest between the two candidates who got the highest number of votes in the first ballot and re-poll. As a result, the candidate who gets the majority of the members present in the House will be considered as the elected Prime Minister and will be announced by the Speaker through Rolling. The Assembly Rules contain details of this which will be mentioned later.
In the event of a no-confidence motion, the prime minister resigns, and the election of a new prime minister is a constitutional requirement. In this case, the procedure for electing a new Leader of the House from the National Assembly will be the same as that adopted after the general election. The rules of the National Assembly are also clear on this.
In the event of a successful no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister in accordance with Rule 38 of the Rules and Regulations of the National Assembly, the Speaker of the National Assembly shall immediately inform the President in writing of the result and the Secretary Assembly shall publish the announcement in the Official Gazette. We will issue a notification for this.
Conditions set for Prime Ministerial candidates
The process of electing a new Leader of the House in the National Assembly will begin after the removal of the Prime Minister. Rule No. 32 of the National Assembly states that "... if the post of Prime Minister becomes vacant for any reason, the National Assembly shall elect a new Prime Minister leaving all other proceedings."
The same rule requires that a candidate for the post of Prime Minister be a Muslim. Articles 32 to 36 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly provide for the election of the Prime Minister.
Nomination papers
The first step in the selection of the Prime Minister is to obtain the nomination forms which will be issued by the Assembly Secretariat. One member of the Assembly will nominate any member of the Assembly as the candidate for the post of Prime Minister while the other member will be the supporter of that candidate.
Separate nomination forms will be submitted for each candidate. Multiple nomination forms can also be submitted for a candidate provided that the nominating and endorsing members are different on each nomination form. According to the Assembly Rules, the Prime Ministerial candidate, proposer or endorser may submit nomination papers to the Assembly Secretary by 2 pm on the day of election.
Examination of nomination papers, Speaker powers
The Speaker then begins the process of scrutinizing the nomination papers. The Speaker will scrutinize the nomination papers in the presence of the candidate or his nominee and seconder. The Speaker may reject the papers if he deems that the candidate is not a member of the Assembly or does not meet the requirements of Rule 32 of the National Assembly or the signature of the nominee or endorser of the candidate is not genuine.
But the rejection of one nomination form will not affect the other nomination form of the same candidate, the scrutiny of other nomination forms will be on the same scale. According to the rules, the Speaker cannot reject any nomination form on the basis of any error which cannot be rectified immediately.
According to the rules, the Speaker of the National Assembly will approve the acceptance or rejection of each nomination form. If a nomination form is rejected, the Speaker will have to give detailed reasons for rejecting it. The Speaker's decision to reject or accept the nomination form will be final.
According to the rules, any candidate for the post of Prime Minister can withdraw his nomination form at any time before the election. The selection process begins after the final decision and announcement on the nomination papers. The Prime Minister is elected to the National Assembly by open vote.
Voting phase
Before the voting begins, the Speaker will announce the names of the eligible candidates for the post of Prime Minister in the Assembly. He will then instruct the House to ring the bells for 5 minutes to begin the election process so that members of the lobby or outside can enter the House and ensure their attendance.
With the bells ringing, the doors of the lobby are closed so that no member can go out and no member can enter from outside. If there is only one candidate in the field for the election of the Prime Minister and he has a majority of the members of the Assembly, then the Speaker will declare his uncontested victory.
If there are 2 or more candidates, the Speaker will instruct the members to go to the lobbies of the House and cast their votes for their election. Separate lobbies will be announced for each candidate. Members of the Assembly will then go to the lobby reserved for their favorite candidate and vote for that candidate by marking their name. This stage takes one and a half to two hours.
Counting of votes and re-voting if required
After the voting is over, the counting process begins for which the staff of the National Assembly is assigned to the duties. After the completion of the counting process, the Speaker will announce inside the House the votes received by the successful candidate and the contesting candidate. The Speaker will also announce the victory of the candidate with the majority of votes and the election of the Prime Minister by rolling.
If there are 2 or more Prime Ministerial candidates and no candidate manages to get a majority in the first round, then re-vote should be held between the first and second place candidates according to the number of votes obtained. Will go In that case, whichever candidate gets the most votes, the Speaker will give him the roll call to be declared the Prime Minister.
If the contest between the two candidates is equal and both get equal votes, then the Speaker will hold repeated voting till one of them has a numerical advantage of one vote. The candidate who receives the majority of votes will then be declared elected.
Announcement of successful candidate and vote of confidence
If there is only one candidate and he also fails to get a majority of the members of the Assembly, then the Speaker will announce the resumption of the entire process of election of the Prime Minister. Otherwise, the successful candidate will be announced as the Prime Minister and if the Speaker wishes, he can ask the Prime Minister to take a vote of confidence on the same day, so that the members will stand on their seats and give a vote of confidence to the Prime Minister.
Following this victory, the National Assembly Secretariat will issue a notification of successful candidate and elected Prime Minister. After the gazette notification is issued, the President will administer the oath of office to the newly elected Prime Minister, after which he will be able to go to the Prime Minister's House and take charge of his government affairs.
Now, given the current political situation, the question is whether the new Prime Minister will be elected in the current session of the National Assembly or whether the Speaker will adjourn the session indefinitely if the no-confidence motion is successful. The matter will be left to the discretion of the President when he convenes a meeting and then elects a new Leader of the House.
Barrister Zameer Ghamro, an expert on constitutional affairs, said that if the no-confidence motion was successful, the posts of Prime Minister of Pakistan and all cabinet ministers would be considered vacant. After that, the National Assembly has nothing else to do. The first task of the Assembly is to elect a new Leader of the House. The new Prime Minister may be elected in the current session and if the Speaker adjourns the session indefinitely (whichever is possible) after the no-confidence vote is successful, then the President is bound to convene a new session immediately. The task will be to elect a new Prime Minister.
The second part
Examples from the past
Since the situation after the success of the no-confidence motion has never occurred, we have no precedent for convening an assembly session. In the light of the 1973 constitution, a no-confidence motion has been filed against two prime ministers of the country in the past but failed both times.
After Zia-ul-Haq long martial law, in 1988, in a party-based election, PPP leader Benazir Bhutto was elected Prime Minister. Less than a year after he took office, a no-confidence motion was filed against him in October 1989, which failed.
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto won the no-confidence motion by 12 votes. The opposition needed 119 votes from the then Assembly to make this movement a success, but the movement failed with 107 votes.
This was followed by another no-confidence motion against General Pervez Musharraf favorite Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Even then, the National Assembly had only 342 members, in which the opposition needed a majority of 172 votes to win the movement against the Prime Minister, but the opposition lost 36 votes. 136 votes were cast in favor of this movement.
In case of failure of these two movements at different times, the then Prime Ministers remained in their respective posts without any hindrance and there was no change in the routine of government.
current situation
This time the situation is somewhat different because the opposition has shown its majority inside and outside the National Assembly. In a meeting convened outside the House at Sindh House on Wednesday, March 30, the opposition had shown its support to 199 members. At the same time, the United Opposition leadership is claiming that it has the support of more than 200 members of the Assembly, compared to the previous session of 175 members on the floor of the Assembly.
Opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections. This is a great proof of the majority they got which is now part of the Assembly record.
A meeting of the National Assembly was convened on Thursday, March 31, 2022 to discuss the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister, but before the debate could begin, the Deputy Speaker resumed normal proceedings and sought permission from the government to table a motion.
The motion was moved on behalf of the government by Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Babar Awan, who said, "This House demands that the hall of the National Assembly be set aside for a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security."
The Deputy Speaker moved the motion before the House but the opposition voted against the motion and rejected it at the first stage. The committee will be in Room No.2.
Ambiguity in Assembly Rules
When asked about the convening of the National Assembly for the election of a new Leader of the House, Mushtaq Ahmed, Additional Secretary, Legislative Assembly, said: Whether the National Assembly convenes again or a new Prime Minister is elected in the same session, the Constitution and the Assembly rules and regulations are completely silent on this.
He said it was at the discretion of the Speaker to adjourn the sittings indefinitely after the possible success of the no-confidence motion or to elect the Leader of the House under the new agenda in the same sitting. He added that a decision was yet to be made.
In such a case, it is believed that just as the Speaker, despite his request, delayed the convening of the National Assembly for three days, despite the Speaker's announcement, the Opposition was allowed to discuss the no-confidence motion on the appointed day.
Not given and as the Opposition is accusing the Speaker of violating the Constitution by considering him as a party, there is a danger of using delaying tactics in the National Assembly session for the election of the new Leader of the House.
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