Motion on NBF board of governors: government faces difficulties in National Assembly after MQM withholds support

The government on Wednesday faced serious embarrassment in the National Assembly when its closed ally MQM did not support in voting to pass a motion, objecting that it has not been taken on board in this regard. The government had to latter announced to revisit the motion, which was passed amid a rare show of protest walk out from all the opposition parties.
The motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan on behalf of the Minister for Education Mir Hazar Khan Bajarani to elect PPP lawmakers Mir Dost Mohammad Mazari, Nazir Ahmed Bughio, Syed Nasir Ali Shah, Noor Alam Khan and Fauzia Wahab as members of the board of governors of the National Book Foundation (NBF). The process of the voting was challenged by the opposition for three times in the House and later it was passed unilaterally when the opposition members walked out of the House.
The MQM, a closed ally of the PPP led federal government also initially refused to support the motion and later they conditionally stood up to show the strength when Minister for Labour Syed Khursheed Shah and Information Minister Qamer Zaman Kaira motivated them after a long time assuring that the motion would be revisited and all the parties in the House be taken on board.
It was the first show of unanimity among the opposition parties to stage a walk out from the House against the way of the passage of the motion. The House also witnessed slogans as "shame, shame," "go Shah Jee go" when Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khurshid Shah went to convince the MQM's members to support the motion after it was challenged.
Later, MQM deputy parliamentary leader Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi who rose on point of order said that his party supported the motion only just it is part of the government but he clarified that MQM was not taken on board for brining the motion in the House.
He urged the government to take back the motion and revisit and bring in the House after taking all the political parties on board. He further said that the MQM did not appreciate the procedure of adopting the motion. While responding, Khurshid Shah assured the House that the motion would be revisited and be brought in the House after taking all the parties on board. He said that it was for the first time that members of a single political party were included in the motion to be elected as board of governors of the NBF.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said that it was the prorogation of the Minister whoever he wants to include in the boards of governors. And the idea was largely protested by the opposition members, saying that if it was prerogative of the minister to elect the BoDs then why it was put before the House.
Earlier, PML-N's Khwaja Asif and PPP's Sherpao Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Raza Hayat Hiraj raised serious objections over the process of the voting on the resolution despite it was challenged for three times from the opposition benches and the convincing of the MQM during the voting process to support the motion.
Sherpao said that if it was discretion of the minister to appoint the members of the board then why the motion is being brought in the House for passage. Khwaja Asif while speaking raised objection saying that the House should not be bulldozed adding that it was not the proper way to admit the motion as it has been challenged.