The opposition on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Upper House of the Parliament twice; first over the absence of federal ministers during the Senate session and then on the 'hostile' attitude of the treasury benches, which eventually led to the adjournment of the house till Friday.
During the Senate proceedings presided over by Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla, the treasury benches came under sharp criticism from the opposition senators over the absence of federal ministers.
The chair endorsed the opposition's viewpoint regarding the absence of the government functionaries from the Senate session. "This is highly irresponsible attitude. I am extremely disappointed," Mandviwalla said.
"Why are the federal ministers not taking the house business seriously? There is no one from the federal cabinet to represent government and address the related queries of the senators except Parliamentary Affairs Minister (Azam Swati)."
Addressing Swati, the deputy chairman said, "Swati, why do you not ask your colleagues to make themselves available here? Why do they take Senate so lightly? How can things work like that if the ministers continue to be indifferent towards the Upper House of the Parliament? Have they no respect for Senate?"
Swati said the ministers are attending the federal cabinet meeting and are, therefore, not available for the Senate session. This angered the opposition. "Why did the Prime Minister schedule federal cabinet meetings at the same time when Senate question hour is in progress? This happens every Tuesday. Cabinet meetings are deliberately fixed at the same time the Senate session is taking place to provide an excuse to the ministers to skip the Senate session," she said.
Leader of the Opposition in Senate and Chairman Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Raja Zafar-ul-Haq also slammed the absence of ministers and announced to stage a walkout on behalf of the entire opposition. The opposition members then left the floor of the house. The chair asked the parliamentary affairs minister to bring back the opposition, which he did.
The opposition senators complained that two motions, one on discussion on the Annual Report of the National Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2017 and second on Senate's gratitude to the president of Pakistan by for his address to both the houses assembled together on September 12, 2019, are continuously reflecting in the agenda of the Senate session while adjournment motions and calling attention notices of opposition members have been ignored.
Upon this, the chair announced the conclusion of the agenda item regarding discussion on Annual Report of the National Commission on the Status of Women for the year 2017 and asked Senate Secretariat to prepare one-point agenda to specifically debate on the Senate's gratitude to the president of Pakistan for his address to both the houses assembled together on September 12, 2019 on any day during the ongoing session so that it can be concluded the same day.
Taking the floor on the President's speech to the two Houses of the Parliament in September, PML-N's Murtaza Javed Abbasi strongly criticised President Arif Alvi and accused him of being partisan. "The President is supposed to be neutral. His office is the most respected office of Pakistan. He has to uphold the sanctity and dignity of his office. But unfortunately, this President has always undermined the sanctity of his office as well as the Parliament. He is part of the Parliament but always colluded with government to undermine the Parliament by promulgating presidential ordinances one after another."
Abbasi's speech infuriated the senators from treasury benches including Waleed Iqbal and Mohsin Aziz who interrupted him repeatedly during the speech. In protest, the opposition once again staged a walkout from the session.
Later, the deputy chairman adjourned the Senate till Friday. Meanwhile, during question hour, Railways Affairs Minister Sheikh Rashid said 15 railways tracks are under construction and in the process of completion. "I can't say when exactly they would be completed. It would be too early and premature to say that. But they would be completed in due course of time."
He said work on ML-1 project is underway on priority basis that would reduce the traveling distance between Lahore and Karachi to eight hours. In his written reply to a related question posed by Chaudhary Tanvir from PML-N, Defense Minister Pervez Khattak said Rs1.41 trillion have been paid (till November 2019) under the head of pension to the personnel of the three armed forces including sepoys, junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and officers.
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