ISLAMABAD: Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri on Wednesday correctly schooled the opposition parties on the obvious fact that no member “can or should” dictate to the Speaker of Parliament on how to run the House.
Suri, who was presiding over the House, ordered to expel Agha Rafiullah – a lawmaker belonging to opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) known as a ‘habitual bullier’ – stated protesting in front of the Speaker’s dais after he skipped his question, during question hour.
The starred question of the MNA was at the top of the questions list and its reply was not received, due to which the chair skipped the question and moved to the next question. This angered the PPP MNA who started protesting in front of the chair’s dais.
The deputy speaker in a silk gown bellowed “Order! Order!” over crowds of braying lawmakers mostly from PPP, fell on deaf ear, forcing him with no option but to order his expulsion from the House.
Over his continuous protest, the deputy speaker first directed to expel him from the House for the current sitting and later for the current session. He directed the sergeants-at-arms to expel him from the House, but PPP women MPs gathered around Rafiullah and did not give access to sergeant-at-arms towards the MNA.
The other opposition lawmakers, who were on the walkout from the House during this ruckus, returned to the House and then PPP MNA Raja Pervaiz Ashraf apologized from the deputy speaker on behalf of the MNA in question.
The chair reconsidered his decision and directed the PPP MNA to leave the House for a moment and then return.
Later, the member returned to the House after a gap of around 25-minute when the House passed a motion under Rule 288 to suspend the Rules. The motion was tabled by the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.
Minister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the House that the government would announce a package to boost the agriculture sector and facilitate the farmers.
Responding to a point order raised by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Khawaja Asif, he said that agriculture package would be announced by the agriculture committee soon.
He said the package was aimed at providing subsidy to the farmers on fertilizer, pesticides and other related material for that sector to increase growing items in the country.
Khan said that all the suggestions of the opposition would be considered for the betterment of the country, adding the Speaker National Assembly had already formed a committee of Parliament in which representatives of all opposition parties were on board for steps to promote agriculture sector.
He said that three provinces including Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had submitted their recommendations regarding prices of wheat while Sindh was yet to send its recommendations.
The minister explained that the wheat issue was discussed in recent Cabinet meeting but no decision had been taken in that regard.
Khawaja Asif demanded the government to fix the price of wheat from Rs1600 to 2000 per 40kg to encourage peasants and promote agriculture.
“If the government had not fixed the price of the wheat, there would be shortage of wheat in the country during the upcoming season of wheat,” he warned.
He said that ‘we are an agricultural country and the government should take concrete measure to the address the issues of farmers’. The state minister, while responding to a calling attention notice by MNA Kishwar Zehra and others about termination of hundred of contract employees from Radio Pakistan, said that Radio Pakistan was running on deficit which stood at Rs1billion, due to which contractual employees were laid off.
He said that services of 749 contractual employees were terminated who had been recruited without following rules and regulations, adding out of total terminated employees, 225 were close relatives of those who were already working in Radio Pakistan and they were recruited without following any merit.
“Radio Pakistan received a grant of Rs4373 million against its expenditure of Rs5600 million. It has total revenue Rs285 million while its shortfall was estimated as Rs1200 million”, he said.
RESOLUTION
The National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution, strongly condemning the recent terror attacks in Peshawar and Quetta.
The resolution was moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, which said that “our security forces are prepared to eliminate the terrorist elements.” The resolution demanded that those involved in the terrorist attacks must be brought to justice.
Speaking on a point of order, Murad Saeed, the minister for communications, condemned statement made by a local cleric at PDM protest in Quetta.
He denounced the anti-Pakistan statements being made from the platform of PDM, and said conspiracies were being hatched against the country, urging the opposition parties not to become part of them.
He categorically said that no NRO would be given to the corrupt elements. He regretted over the opposition’s attitude which pointed out the quorum and later walked out from the House by saying that it did not prefer to discuss the tragic incident in Peshawar last day and left the House over political issues.
The minister said that written NRO was presented by the opposition before the government when efforts were under way to counter Covid-19 challenges and legislate in parliament to come out form FATF grey list.
“We did not accept their NRO as the Qatri letter was neither presented by us nor any institution,” he maintained.
He questioned a set of coincidences between a recent statement by the Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and the speeches delivered a day earlier by the 11-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of the opposition parties. He also condemned statements made in PDM’s rally against fencing on Pak-Afghan border.
The minister said Imran Khan had raised his voice on the Kashmir and Palestine issues and fought the case of the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s prophethood at international forums. He said Pakistan was facing internal and external threats and the incumbent government had adopted rational approach to tackle all challenges.
“We curse on all those who are promotes Modi’s propaganda,” he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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