Legal experts on Saturday said that not calling the requisitioned session of the National Assembly within the stipulated time and proroguing the session without initiating proceedings of no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan would attract Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution on the National Assembly speaker. The experts said that a deliberate delay in summoning the session was leading towards constitutional impasse and the situation would further worsen if Speaker Asad Qaiser prorogues the session without starting proceedings on the motion in due course of time. On March 8, the united opposition had submitted the motion against the premier as well as requested for summoning of the session with the National Assembly Secretariat. Even before the voting on the no-confidence motion against PM Imran, the government and the opposition have locked horns over the delay in calling the session, which will lead to taking up the motion and deciding the fate of the premier. Also read: Opposition threatens to block OIC moot if no-trust vote delayed On Saturday, the political temperature reached to the point where the opposition parties threatened that they would not allow the government to hold the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) of foreign ministers in the assembly if the Speaker didn't call the session on Monday – March 21 – and initiated proceedings of the no-confidence motion. “Not calling the session within 14 days after it is requisitioned or proroguing the session without taking up the no-confidence motion would amount to abrogating the Constitution and would attract Article 6,” president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon said. “The speaker is bound to convene the session within 14 days come what may,” Bhoon added while commenting on the speculations that the speaker was bound to call the session and that it could be convened on a later date. He also laughed at the rumours that the 14-day period was stipulated only for calling the session but not for convening the same during the span. On the prorogation of a session without beginning the proceedings on the motion, Bhoon said if that was allowed, then the motion would never get through the assembly as the speaker would have to repeat the exercise whenever the session was convened. “High treason applies on a military dictator if he abrogates the Constitution; it is attracted on a court for subverting the same and similarly, the speaker can be tried for high treason under Article 6 if he violates the Constitution,” the expert maintained. Also read: In about-face, joint opposition retracts threat to disrupt OIC moot Expressing his views, President Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) Ahmed Bilal Mehboob termed convening of the session within 14 days a constitutional requirement, saying if anyone subverted the constitutional provision, then they would face the Article 6. On convening the session, he explained that the assembly session had to be summoned by the speaker within 14 days of the receipt of the requisition at a time and place as he thought fit under Article 54 (3) of the Constitution. This, he said, clarified that it was not necessary to convene the session in the National Assembly but at any time and place within the prescribed time. On the prorogation of the session before initiating proceedings on no-trust motion, Mehboob referred to Section 37 (of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007 Section 37) that states: “The assembly shall not be prorogued until the motion is disposed of or, if leave is granted, the resolution has been voted upon.” No-trust motion's procedure According to Article 54, a session of the National Assembly can be requisitioned if at least 25 per cent of the members sign it, following which the speaker has a maximum of 14 days to summon the session. Once the assembly is in session, the rules say that the secretary will circulate a notice for the no-confidence resolution, which will be moved on the next working day. From the day the resolution is moved, the rules add, it “shall not be voted upon before the expiry of three days, or later than seven days”. Therefore, experts say the speaker must call the lower house in session by March 22, while voting on the no-confidence motion must take place between three and seven days after the session is summoned.
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