Assembly staff doesn’t let Nisar take oath

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly secretariat did not allow former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to swear in as member of the Punjab Assembly on Monday, citing absence of the speaker and his deputy.

Talking to the media outside the assembly, Nisar announced moving the court against the authority concerned for not letting him take the oath. He said, “I had decided to stay away from politics and today, after three years, I am talking to the media.”

He said: “I won the Punjab Assembly seat with a lead of 34,000 votes, but lost the National Assembly seat. I took a stand and still I am sticking to it, but decided to take oath in the wake of a political development.”

He said the government was trying to bring in an ordinance to de-seat those who did not take oath as member of the assemblies within a certain period of time. He said the election, qualification and disqualification of members of the national and provincial assemblies was clearly written in the constitution of Pakistan. “It is clearly described in the Constitution that how a member will take oath, what will be the qualifications and how he/she can be disqualified,”

he added.

He said he would abide by the rules if enacted properly, but he said he had strong reservations about the new procedure of disqualification, which the government was trying to introduce through an ordinance. "If I do not contest the by-poll, then it will be like giving a free hand to my political opponents, especially when the general elections are near.

“In case I make someone contest the election in my place, they will say that I have dual standards as I am opposing the ordinance and at the same time I am also contesting the election through someone,” he said, and added that this was why he decided to take the oath.

“I assure you that I am not a part of any political game. About one week back, I wrote to the Punjab Assembly and sent a copy to the Election Commission and today was fixed for my oath taking. But today, I was told that I can’t take oath in the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker,” he said and added that the pretext was completely wrong.

“Anyone conducting the house has full authority of speaker,” he said adding that he would take legal opinion on the issue and there was a possibility that he would go to the court against the act. To a question, he said he was active in his constituency and no one could decide this while sitting in Lahore that he was doing nothing for the people of his area.

Replying to a question that keeping in view the prevailing political situation what advice he should give to the prime minister, he said that Imran Khan had many friends who were already advising him. He said that today there was a dire need to unite the country and resolve differences instead of fighting with each other. It was the job of the rulers to take all political parties on board to resolve national issues.

To a question that whether he had been advised by Shahbaz Sharif to take oath, Nisar said that was a speculation. He refused to answer questions regarding the ongoing political scenario and repeated that the country needed reconciliation not infighting.

To a question that who was behind the move of stopping him from taking oath, he replied that he would reveal it after two days. Nisar also parried a question that who was his ‘Quaid’ and in which party he currently was. He said he would visit Lahore after two days and speak out openly. Meanwhile, it is learnt, the assembly secretariat kept fumbling with the reasons after denying Nisar access to the House for taking oath.

At first, the Assembly Secretary refused Ch Nisar Ali Khan the entry to the House on the ground ‘a member can’t have the oath administered by someone amongst the Panel of Chairmen’. He insisted the rules of the Punjab Assembly required either the Speaker or his deputy to perform the ritual’.

Ch Nisar Ali contested it wasn’t so. The Clause 16 in Chapter III of the Rules of Procedure of the Punjab Assembly states, “The Presiding Officer shall have the same powers as the Speaker has when presiding at a sitting; and, all references in these rules to the Speaker shall be deemed to include a reference to the Presiding Officer.’’

Since Ch Nisar didn’t anticipate what seemed a probable plan, he tried to convince the Secretary Assembly without the required legal helpings. He came out and held a detailed press conference, primarily focusing on another reason furnished by the Secretary Assembly, that is, ‘the Speaker or the Punjab Assembly Secretary was not formally intimated as required under the Clause 6(4) of the Rules of Procedure’.

As a small part of media started reporting the event, dressing the content with a similar example of oath-taking of Ms Sania Kamran by Chairman Mohammad Shafi in June 2020, the assembly secretariat and Law Minister Raja Basharat came up with a fresh excuse that Nisar’s status of still holding the seat had been challenged in the courts. Ironically, Ch Nisar did not mention this reason in the press conference.

The Secretary Assembly toed the same line later, saying how could he allow the legislator-elect to take oath with the possibility of any of the courts staying his right to join the Punjab Assembly’.

Ch Nisar Ali claimed he had intimated the Punjab Assembly and the Election Commission a week prior to his plan of taking oath. It is learnt the three petitions in Rawalpindi moved by Raja Naseer Ahmad, Ch Noor Khan and Ch Ijaz Ameer, and another by a lawyer in Lahore had not gone beyond the maintainability stage.

Defending the government’s stance, Law Minister Raja Basharat said: “The fact the new member could not take oath from the Panel of Chairmen was not the only reason, rather Ch Nisar had cases against him in different courts about whose status the Assembly Secretariat was not sure.”

The minister said the secretariat would give its opinion on Nisar’s status after gathering information from the related courts. “We would get the record from the courts for further consultation over the issue.”

In a similar response, Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti clarified that Ch Nisar Ali Khan had not been stopped from taking oath, rather he had sought time from the member to ascertain there had been no stay order against his membership.

Ch Nisar quoted the secretary having said he was not allowed to take oath on the ground he did not fulfil the required condition of prior intimation. Ch Nisar, however, stressed he had followed the procedure.