No-trust motion: All eyes on crucial NA session today  

Islamabad: National Assembly (NA) will meet on Friday (today) for crucial session on the request of the joint opposition to begin the process for the no-confidence motion filed against Prime Minister.

The crucial session will convene at 11 am to start proceedings for a no-confidence motion, with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair. According to sources, during the National Assembly session, a strategy will be chalked out. 

It could take several days before an actual vote to decide if Imran will be removed.

In the 342-member National Assembly, the ruling coalition needs at least 172 members to sail through the no-confidence vote. 

Notably, to oust Imran Khan, the opposition leaders submitted the no-confidence motion in National Assembly on March 8. 

According to sources, the joint opposition stalwarts held consultation on no-trust motion to be tabled against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly today.

No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office.

Pakistan’s next general election is due by late 2023, however, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, at a news conference, hinted towards an early election to defuse the looming confrontation.  

Yesterday, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari called on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for consultation on no-trust motion. 

The National Assembly secretariat on Thursday night released the agenda for the crucial session of the House on Friday. 

According to the orders of the day issued by the NA secretariat, besides other issues, the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan has also been placed on the agenda for tomorrow’s session of the lower house.

The 41st session of the NA will start with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Later, the no-trust motion against the premier will be tabled in the house.

“This House is of the view that PM Imran Khan has lost the confidence of the majority of the members of the National Assembly of Pakistan, therefore, he should cease to hold office,” read the agenda.

It added that the leave is granted to move a resolution for a vote of no-confidence under Article 95(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, read with rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, against Imran Khan.

“If leave is granted, resolution for a vote of no-confidence against the prime minister to be moved,” it added.