ISLAMABAD: National Assembly’s Speaker Asad Qaiser and Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri resigned on late Saturday night amid political crisis.

The Speaker resumed the assembly session after 11:30 PM after taking break, announced to resign from his post and handed the charge to Panel of Chairman NA, Ayaz Sadiq, following which voting process on the no-trust motion started.

Speaking in the session of NA, Asad Qaiser said he was shown the ‘threat letter’ and he cannot hold the voting after seeing the letter. He said he is bound to his oath. He announced that he cannot carry as NA speaker and announced to resign from his post. He also announced that the Panel of Chairman NA, Ayaz Sadiq will preside over the session on the no-confidence motion.

The National Assembly session summoned for voting on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister was again adjourned till 9:30pm after Isha prayers. The National Assembly session began at 10:30am in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directives. NA Speaker Asad Qaiser is chairing today’s session. Amjad Ali Khan Niazi also chaired the session for a brief period as the session resumed after the adjournment before Qaiser returned.

Earlier, the speaker assured the opposition leaders that voting on no-trust motion would be held at 8pm tonight whereas the assembly session would resume after a little while. It has been decided that leaders from government and opposition parties would cut short their speeches. There would be a break for Iftar. After that the assembly would finally vote on the much-delayed no-confidence motion at 8pm, sources concluded.

During the first break, the Opposition held a consultative meeting in the Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif’s chamber to discuss a counter-strategy for the government’s alleged plan to prolong the session. From the Opposition’s side, JUI-F leader Maulana Asad Mahmood assured the members of the treasury benches that they will not interrupt speeches delivered from the government’s side.