The government on Monday tabled five ordinances before the National Assembly, including The Banks (Nationalisation) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006 amid noisy protest by the opposition. Law minister Wasi Zafar moved the motion to lay down ordinances in the lower house of the parliament.
ORDINANCES ARE: The Alternative Energy Development Board Ordinance, 2006; The Pakistan Engineering Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006; The National Database and Registration Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006; The Institute of Space Technology Ordinance, 2006; and The Banks (Nationalisation) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006.
It was former finance minister Naveed Qamar, who immediately opposed these ordinances and said the government has a long list of ordinances, which should be promulgated in case of an emergency.
However, speaker Amir Hussain immediately interrupted him and switched off his mike.
MMA deputy parliamentary leader in the lower house Liaquat Baloch also supported Naveed Qamar. He said the government has every right to promulgate an ordinance but it is not considered to be a good parliamentary practice world-wide.
The infuriated speaker said: "The ordinances stand laid. Both of you (Naveed and Baloch) know everything... please don't act like this."
But the situation aggravated when PPPP lawmaker Sherry Rehman stood from her seat and said bills and ordinances were being tabled without providing their copies to members.
"Legislation is going on...Mr speaker none of the papers are provided to us. None of the ordinances are here," she protested. However, the speaker did not agree with her and said documents were provided to all members in the house.
Some of the other opposition members also protested over the government's practice to table a bunch of ordinances when the parliament was in session.
PML-N leader and former privatisation minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif asked speaker Amir Hussain to clarify perks and privileges MNAs were getting at the moment.
He said the government with the help of some institutions was creating the impression that they were drawing some extraordinary salaries and allowances.
Khwaja demanded of the speaker to issue a clarification from the Assembly secretariat showing actual salaries and privileges of MNAs to clear confusion being created in the minds of general public.
Labour minister Ghulam Sarwar requested the speaker to even explain the amount of development funds MNAs were getting for their respective constituencies.
He said every member was allowed to identify schemes worth Rs 10 million for his constituency, sparking a new debate in which opposition members said they were given only Rs 5 million for development schemes.
Later on, speaker Amir Hussain directed the parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Niazi to present complete details of MNAs salaries, allowances and all other perks and privileges they were getting.
The speaker also clubbed different adjournment motions of opposition members regarding Fokker plane crash and the matter would soon be debated in the house.
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