Planned no-trust motion: Open vote to be held before a time-consuming process

ISLAMABAD: The procedure before D-day -- voting on a no-confidence resolution against the prime minister – is likely to consume a lot of time, which can be considerably increased if the speaker wills to do so.

The more time is taken, the more beneficial it will be for the government and the more detrimental it will be for the sponsors of a resolution. Time is the essence for the movers of the motion, considering the possibility of a reversal in the change of loyalties.

Although a timeline is mentioned in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, there are still clear gaps in it, which can be taken advantage of by the ruling party through the speaker.

Rule 37 says a written notice of a no-trust motion will be “given” [to the National Assembly Secretariat or secretary] by not less than 20 per centum of the total membership of the assembly.

The secretary will, “as soon as may be” [no time limit spelt out], circulate the notice to the members. Such a notice will be entered in the name of the members concerned “in the order of the day for the first working day after the expiry of one clear day of its receipt.”

This will be possible if the National Assembly will be in session. But if it is not, the sponsors of the no-confidence resolution will have to requisition the sitting. In such a scenario, the speaker will take the maximum permitted time of 14 days to call the session. So, at the very beginning two weeks could thus be consumed.

However, if the session is ongoing, leave to move the resolution will be asked for after questions, if any, and before other business entered in the orders of the day is taken up. Then, the resolution will be moved and after that the speaker may, after considering the state of business, allot a day or days [no time specified for the speaker to do so] for the discussion on the motion. It has also been left to the speaker to allot the length of time for such a debate. Belonging to the ruling party, he may drag on the discussion for many days.

The legislature will not be prorogued until the motion is disposed of or, if leave is granted, the resolution has been voted upon. Such a resolution will not be moved while the assembly is considering the annual budget.

The motion will not be voted upon before the expiry of three days, or later than seven days, from the day on which the resolution is moved in the assembly. The Second Schedule of the Constitution provides the procedure for recording of votes through division, which is a method of taking a vote that physically counts members’ voting. It will apply to the voting on the no-trust motion against the prime minister.

It says that before voting commences, the speaker will direct that the bells be rung for five minutes to enable members not present in the hall to be present.

Immediately after the bells stop ringing, all the entrances to the lobby will be locked and the assembly staff posted at each entrance will not allow any entry or exit through those entrances until the voting has concluded. Generally, the prime minister’s supporters are asked by the government not to be present during such voting because the onus to produce a majority lies on the shoulders of the opposition parties.

However, the government deploys some of its lawmakers to attend the proceedings to take care of any legal questions that may arise during the process. The speaker will then read out the resolution before the assembly and ask the members who wish to vote in its favour to pass in a single file through the entrance where tellers will be posted to record the votes.

On reaching the desk of the tellers, each member will, in turn, call out the division number allotted to him. The tellers will then mark off his number on the division list simultaneously calling out the name of the member. In order to ensure that his vote has been properly recorded, the member will not move on until he has clearly heard the teller call out his name.

After a member has recorded his vote, he will not return to the hall until the bells are rung once again. When the speaker finds that all the members who wished to vote have recorded their votes, he will announce that the voting has concluded.

Then, the secretary will cause the division list to be collected, count the recorded votes and present its result to the speaker, who will then direct that the bells be rung for two minutes to enable the members to return to the chamber. After the bells stop ringing, he will announce the result to the assembly.