Pakistan Dy Speaker resigns

Islamabad, April 16 : Pakistan’s National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on Saturday tendered his resignation from his post ahead of voting on no-trust motion tabled against him by the Pakistan Muslim League (N). According to the agenda issued by the NA Secretariat, voting on no-trust motion against the deputy speaker have to take place on Saturday and the election and oath-taking ceremony of the new speaker of the lower house also need to be held on the same day, ARY News reported. On Friday, the Islamabad High Court had refused to interfere in the proceedings of the NA on a plea against Suri’s decision to postpone the proceedings until April 22. Sharing his resignation’s copy on Twitter, Suri wrote, “Resignation from the National Assembly is a sign of my party’s vision, its glorious legacy and its commitment to democracy. “We will never compromise on Pakistan’s sovereignty and integrity. We will fight for national interests and Pakistan and for the protection of Will go to any extent.” Suri has been facing widespread criticism over April 3 ruling to dismiss a no-confidence motion against then Prime Minister Imran Khan and his decision to defer the session scheduled for the NA speaker’s election from April 16 to April 22. Earlier this week, he came under fire for accepting the resignations of the PTI MNAs, who quit the NA en masse right before the election of country’s new PM following Khan’s ouster. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PML-N has accused Suri of pressuring the NA secretariat into accepting the resignations. Three days before Shehbaz’s election on April 11 and on the eve of Khan’s ouster, the former opposition had filed a no-trust motion against Suri, saying he had “repeatedly violated the rules, parliamentary practices, democratic norms and traditions, and even Constitutional provisions and when presiding over the House, failed to conduct proceedings in an orderly manner to enable productive debate on issues of public importance,” Dawn reported. PML-N’s Murtaza Javed Abbasi had submitted the resolution against him. VP RNJ