Will PTI-SIC be able to take leader of opposition slot — easily?

KARACHI: Omar Ayub becoming the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly hinges on whether the SIC-PTI combine manages to be acknowledged as a parliamentary party post the PHC verdict on the reserved seats issue, say legal and political experts, some also adding that Zain Qureshi getting the position of parliamentary leader of the SIC is a more doable proposition.

Speaking to Hamid Mir on Geo’s Capital Talk on Wednesday night, PTI leader Asad Qaisar said that the leader of the opposition would be “ours”. On being asked whether that was the PTI or the SIC, Qaisar responded that the PTI and SIC were together in this situation.

On the same show, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar also weighed in on the leader of the opposition dilemma, calling it a “very complex situation” and one that the PTI had mired itself in. Tarar said that “the speaker deciding on the leader of the opposition will require the interpretation of some legal provisions including the rules of procedure of the National Assembly. Omar Ayub didn’t join the SIC as far as I know so as far as he or others like him are concerned, their case is different but for those who have joined the SIC a way can be found for them somehow.”

Can Zain Qureshi be the parliamentary leader of the SIC, asked the host. Tarar said a liberal interpretation of constitutional provisions could manage to find a way for him to be made parliamentary leader.

Barrister Ali Tahir gives a somewhat different legal point of view. According to him, the “position of leader of the opposition is not defined anywhere in the constitution” but the “Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, defines the leader of the opposition as a member who, in the opinion of the Speaker, is for the time being the leader of the majority of the members in the opposition.”

How does the speaker go about declaring the leader of the opposition? Tahir says it should be ideally soon after the election of the prime minister. Members are to submit a name for the leader of the opposition under their signatures. The speaker then verifies the signatures and declares a member as the leader of the opposition based on the highest numerical strength of signatures.

Given the above, surmises Barrister Tahir, “The takeaway is that the leader of the opposition is appointed on the basis of signatures from [opposition] members and not by a party nomination and as such, of the 103 members sitting in opposition in the Nation Assembly, 86 still belong to the SIC. Hence, it is legally incomprehensible to question the status of Omar Ayub as the lawful leader of the opposition.”

Where would the PHC’s reserved seats verdict figure in all this? Barrister Tahir says that since the Peshawar High Court has not yet released a detailed verdict, “which reasoning is being relied on is unclear”.

PILDAT President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob believes that since the leader of the opposition is an MNA who enjoys the support of the majority of opposition MNAs, and “since Omar Ayub already enjoys the support of the majority of opposition MNAs, I don’t think the decision on reserved seats will affect [his becoming the leader of the opposition].”

There is an anomaly here though, when it comes to the status of the SIC at the moment. This is also what the speaker has asked the attorney general to explain: what is the constitutional status of the SIC-PTI right now? And could this affect the leader of the opposition slot?

Analyst Aasiya Riaz says that unless a “party gets itself recognized as a group, the leader of the opposition slot will not be forthcoming. And while the NA rules define that the speaker has to declare leader of the opposition ‘as early as possible’ after the election of the PM, there is no specific time bar.”

Talking to The News about the leader of the opposition dilemma,

journalist Asma Shirazi says that “the PTI is facing an internal issue regarding its position as a parliamentary party and the viability of Omar Ayub assuming the role of leader of the opposition”. If we see this along with the PHC order “whose crux can be taken as scepticism over the PTI members’ alignment with the SIC, then there seems to be a rather big challenge now for the PTI.”

Shirazi points to the NA speaker having already asked the attorney general for the constitutional position of the SIC-PTI as it currently stands and says that it is to be seen how many signatures Omar Ayub gets for the leader of the opposition slot.

This is not all. Shirazi adds another interesting twist to the tale. She says that even in the Senate elections, the PTI members “will now be considered free -- as per PML-N estimations -- so they will, according to this view, be able to vote for anyone of their choosing and won’t be bound by party discipline.”

The PTI’s biggest challenge right now, per Shirazi, is that “its constitutional position as a parliamentary political party is quite compromised at the moment and they may be foreseeing a breaking away of their own from within during the upcoming voting in parliament -- both for the Senate election and for the leader of the opposition.”

Editor of The Friday Times-Naya Daur Raza Rumi offers a way out in the face of what he says is a need for stability in the system. Rumi says that, while the debate on the PTI’s status “is mired by legal technicalities and political crisis, especially the view taken by permanent sections of the state on Imran Khan, this hyper-technical interpretation won’t work in this case.”

According to Rumi, since Omar Ayub and Barrister Gohar did not formally join the SIC, Ayub faces no legal obstacle to his position as the leader of the opposition. Regardless, “all efforts should be made by the political government and establishment not to push the PTI against the wall.

Their participation in the parliamentary system is important for stability as well as chances to revive democracy which has taken a rough beating during the past two years.”