Seething divisions in the ranks of ruling Pakistan Muslim League led to the adjournment of the National Assembly sitting on Saturday without taking up the business.
It is still a mystery why the sitting was scheduled for Saturday, if the government was unable to ensure presence of minimum 86 members in the House, out of its total strength of 200 lawmakers. Rarely, the proceedings are held on Saturdays. The assembly resumed business an hour behind the schedule.
The chair adjourned the House after bells were rung for five minutes and even then, 78 members showed their presence. The House will now meet on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
"It is confusing why members don't turn up. It is causing embarrassment. Quorum problem must be looked into. It is impeding the House business," remarked visibly perturbed State Minister for Environment from Attock, Malik Amin Aslam.
He expressed astonishment while talking to Business Recorder that it was still a mystery why our colleagues were not giving due importance to the august House.
Less than a week back, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who did not come to the assembly, advised ministers, parliamentary secretaries and lawmakers to attend the House proceedings regularly. However, this apparently fell on deaf ears and quorum jinx continues to haunt the 342-member assembly ever since Aziz assumed the office of Premier last year.
Anticipating a possible wind-up of the system, Pakistan Peoples' Party Parliamentarians leader Aitzaz Ahsan cautioned on a Point of Order after the recitation from the Holy Quran that a speech was being written, based on 'our conduct'.
Prior to that, referring to the translation of the Quranic verses recited, Aitzaz Ahsan warned the government against befriending the Jews. He continued that a case was being prepared to blame the Parliament and its members for the present state of affairs.
"Your nemesis is not too far. The parliamentary system will be changed. I request you, work for the rest of the four days of the week because you are being paid for that and if you are unable to take up the treasury's agenda, please entertain our long list of pending items," he requested the Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.
He complained that the members were paid for a whole week while they come to the House for just three days. Aitaz asked the chair why they were being denied the opportunity to speak on continuous price hike, the local bodies' election and other key national issues on the floor of the House?
"The House has been made a joke. A uniformed person will come, deliver a speech and dissolve the toothless Parliament," PPPP leader warned, pointing to the vacant seats of ministers. "Please take the House seriously".
A treasury member seconded his views, though with a bit of difference. Begum Khurshid Afghan of Pir Pagara Muslim League said, "the lack of quorum has become a regular feature ever since Premier Aziz took over as the chief executive".
She contended that President Musharraf would stand justified if he took an action, as indicated by Aitzaz Ahsan. The lady MNA saw, in lack of quorum, a conspiracy against Premier Aziz.
In a chat with newsmen after the business was adjourned, Aitzaz clarified that the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) had not formally joined hands with the MMA. "We have some reservations. Our agreement with MMA on holding the strike should not be construed as if we are now united opposition," he said and added it was also another issue whether or not the strike call was premature.
Later, talking to journalists at the Parliament Cafeteria, MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed conceded that they made a mistake by supporting the 17th Amendment. "We want this piece of legislation to be undone, and that General Musharraf should quit as President and the chief of army staff forthwith, after he reneged on the commitment to doff his uniform," he asserted.
Hafiz made it clear that 'out of total 29 clauses, PPPP had no objection to 22 like us, and it was our mistake to support the remaining seven clauses'.
Though, he continued, MMA had reservations on the increase in women seats and joint electorate for minorities.
He said that by supporting the amendment, MMA wanted to give an honourable exit to the military.
To a question, he said that MMA would abide by the decision of the joint opposition on the option of en-bloc resignation from the assemblies.
He said that the opposition was justified in giving a strike call, as they were being denied to speak on national issues on the floor of the House.
Meanwhile, MMA lady lawmakers, Samia Raheel Qazi, Jamila Ahmed and Razia Aziz waved a Sindhi newspaper with hair-raising details of two women hanged with their hands tied behind their back.
Their brother and brother-in-law allegedly hanged them while the third was stabbed in the fields, but she miraculously survived in Sanghar (Sindh) the other day.
The gory incident, Samia Raheel said was reflective of the fact that there had been no let-up in violence against women. "The international conferences, like the one addressed by General Musharraf recently, or functions at hotels and lectures can't help check violence," she said.
"Nothing is being done to mitigate sufferings of women. It is shameful," she lamented. Samia called for a code of conduct to tackle the challenge. The lady MNA called for a probe into violence against dozens of Jamia Hafza inmates few weeks back.
Razia Aziz alleged that thousands of non-governmental organisations were minting money in the name of fighting the violence against women but they were doing lip service only. She proposed that the Parliament should chalk out a line of action, as the conferences could not serve any purpose. "NGOs must stop glamorising the acts of violence against women and play their role in fighting the challenge, "she emphasised.
They claimed that five veiled students were not given admission in Government College University, Lahore, just because they observed 'purdah'. The lawmakers claimed that they were assured of admission in B.Sc. Honours if they stopped covering their face. They said they were against forcible use of veil, but no one must also be forced to stop using scarf. "We are not living in France, it is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Where is the enlightened moderation, the rulers keep on referring to," they contended.
They strongly condemned the gory incident in Sanghar and denial of admission to the students. MMA lawmakers filed an adjournment motion and a calling attention notice with the National Assembly Secretariat on these two matters.
Comments
Comments are closed.