For this purpose, the sources said that the Speaker officially wrote to the Prime Minister Gilani to file response regarding his convection. The Supreme Court of Pakistan convicted Prime Minster Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani through a short order in his contempt of court case on April 26, 2012. Now the Speaker has only five days to decide whether or no any question arises for the disqualification of Prime Minister Gilani as a member of the National Assembly.
Constitutional experts said the Speaker was duty-bound to decide on the prime minister's disqualification within a period of 30 days. If she fails to do so, the reference would automatically be forwarded to the Election Commission, they argued.
According to Article 63(2) of the Constitution, "If any question arises whether a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) has become disqualified from being a member, the Speaker or, as the case may be, the Chairman shall, unless he decides that no such question has arisen, refer the question to the Election Commission within thirty days and should he fail to do so within the aforesaid period it shall be deemed to have been referred to the Election Commission."
According to Article 63(3), "The Election Commission shall decide the question within ninety days from its receipt or deemed to have been received and if it is of the opinion that the member has become disqualified, he shall cease to be a member and his seat shall become vacant."
The sources said that a lawyer has already filed a reference to the Speaker National Assembly for raising question to disqualify the Prime Minister as member of the Lower House of the Parliament. The National Assembly Secretariat sources said that the Speaker had thoroughly consulted with constitutional and legal experts, who include former Chairman Senate and senior Advocate Waseem Sajjad about the reference.
According to legal expert, the Speaker has three options: 1) Speaker can keep silent and let the reference pass on to the Election Commission of Pakistan for its ruling; 2) the Speaker can herself send the case to the Election Commission, which then has to take a decision in 90 days; and 3) the Speaker can reject the reference arguing that in her opinion Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani was still a member of the National Assembly and did not merit disqualification.