The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has challenged Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri's move to delay sitting of the National Assembly session till April 22 in the Islamabad High Court.

MNA Murtaza Javed Abbasi filed a petition in the high court, requesting the IHC to declare the circular issued to adjourn the meeting of the lower house of parliament from April 16 to 22 “contrary to the Constitution and the law”.

It was requested in the petition that the high court direct Suri and other respondents to immediately convene a meeting of the National Assembly to elect the new speaker.

The plea also requested the IHC to restrain the deputy speaker from exercising the powers of NA speaker.

In an apparent move to delay election for National Assembly speaker, the acting speaker Suri changed the schedule of the session from April 16 to 22, according to a tweet by the NA.

"The National Assembly session scheduled for Saturday 4pm will be held on April 22 (Friday)," read the tweet, adding Suri had changed the schedule under Rule 49-2B of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure, 2007.

The speaker seat was vacated after former speaker Asad Qaiser opted to resign rather than conduct the voting on the no-confidence motion that led to Imran Khan's ouster as prime minister.

The sitting of the parliament for the no-trust vote and subsequent vote for the election of a new prime minister was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq, one of the members of the panel of chairpersons and former NA speaker .

Earlier, the NA Secretariat issued the schedule for the post of the speaker, stating nomination papers would be submitted by 12pm April 15, while election of the new National Assembly speaker would be conducted under Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure, 2007.

It is pertinent to mention that the former government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had announced en masse resignations from the lower house of the parliament and urged the institutions to conduct fresh general elections.