Altaf Hamid Rao.
Declares earlier order of Speaker for election to new leader of the house unconstitutional,
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times): The Supreme Court of Azad Jammu Kashmir on Saturday ordered for issuance of fresh schedule of the election to the new Prime Minister of Azad government of the State of Jammu & Kashmir under article 16 (3) of Azad Jammu Kashmir Interim Constitution- 1974 through summoning of fresh session of Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly by the President of AJK State, the only authority to summon the Legislature to meet for election to new leader of the house after the resignation by the AJK Prime Minister from the office.
Our Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao reports from Mirpur that the learned full court, comprising Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram, Khan, Justice Khawaja Muhammad Nasim, Justice Raza Ali Khan and Justice Muhammad Younis Tahir, which met in Muzaffarabad, declared that under article 16 (3) of the AJK Interim Constitution 1974, if the prime minister resigns at the time when the assembly is not in session, only the President of the AJK State, has the power to summon the assembly session for election to the office of the new leader of the house / Prime Minister of AJK within 14 days after resignation and the speaker has no power to issue schedule for the election to the new Prime Minister / new leader of the house, Independently.
The learned full apex Court of Azad Jammu Kashmir, while disposing off the appeal by Sardar Tanveer Illayas, candidate for Prime Ministership of AJK (belonging to the incumbent ruling PTI party in AJK )declared that after the resignation of Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi from office before voting upon no confidence motion under article 16 (3), it is only the President of AJK State, has the authority to summon the session of the AJK Legislative Assembly within 14 days for election to the new leader of the house / new Prime Minister of AJK.
The learned AJK Supreme Court observed that after the resignation of the AJK Prime Minister Sardar Qayyum Niazi from the office, the vote of no-confidence motion against him (Qayyum Niazi) has become in fructuous and the session stands adjourned. And as such, the speaker has no power to issue the schedule for elections of the new Prime Minister.
The full court observed that after the adjournment of the AJK Legislative Assembly session, that stands in fructuous, the writ petition filed in the High Court of AJK also become in fructuous.
The learned full court also directed the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu Kashmir and the Secretary Law of AJK government to place the case before the Prime minister of Azad Jammu Kashmir – so that the President of the AJK State could summon the session of the Legislature under article 16 [3] of the AJK Interim Constitution for election to the office of the new Prime Minister.
It may be added that the High Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on April 15, 2022, on a writ petition filed by leader of opposition in the AJK Legislative Assembly Ch. Lateef Akber and Ch. Muhammad Yasin, member of the assembly and President PPP AJK Chapter, issued a Stay order restraining the Speaker of AJK Legislative Assembly not to proceed for election to the new Prime Minister of AJK for which, the speaker issued the schedule for election, on the ground that the session of the house, summoned by the Speaker on April 15, was for the voting upon the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister Qayyum Niazi, which had already become in fructuous due to the resignation by the Prime Minister Qayyum Niazi on April 14th from the office. The High Court of AJK had fixed the case to hear on April 18th.
It may also be worthwhile to mention here that the High Court of AJK had also observed that after the resignation by the Prime Minister Qayyum Niazi from the office, the Speaker had no power to issue the schedule of election to the new Prime Minister as the power of summoning the fresh session of the legislature only vest in the President of Azad Jammu Kashmir State.
As reported earlier that after having been utterly sick and perplexed of the recently-submitted no-confidence motion by his own ruling PTI party’s law makers in Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly on April 12, the Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, a couple of days after the no-trust-move, resigned from his office with immediate effect on April 14 opening a vista for all legislators in the house to contest for the top slot of the next leader of the house – the new Prime Minister of Azad Government of the State of Jammu Kashmir.
In his own hand-written resignation from the Premiership of Azad Jammu Kashmir, submitted to the President of Azad Jammu Kashmir State, on Thursday, the Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi said “ Under Article 16 [1] of Interim Constitution – 1974 of Azad Jammu Kashmir, I offer my resignation from the office of the Prime Minister of Azad government of the State of Jammu & Kashmir with effect from 14.4.2022”.
Since after the resignation of Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niaz from the office, the idea of moving the no-trust motion against him had reportedly been dropped opening the avenue of contesting for the office of the new leader of the house / the new Prime Minister of Azad Jammu Kashmir by any of the members of the assembly from both treasury and opposition benches. In these circumstances, besides from the treasury benches, the opposition parties in the house including PPP, PML (N), Muslim Conference and Jamaat-e-Islami could also field their joint candidate for the election to the new leader of the house with the involvement of due required numbers of the law makers to elect the leader of the house in 53-member AJK Legislative Assembly, lower house of the AJK Parliament, according to the sources who confirmed that there was no any restriction to cross the floor in the legislature at present – except an alleged prevailing act to discourage the floor crossing from either side of the opposition and the treasury benches.