Absence of ministers in the House: opposition, coalition partners embarrass PPP

Opposition and coalition partners in the Senate on Saturday embarrassed the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for its inability to ensure presence of ministers in the House, as all the senators except for the PPP staged walk out during proceedings against the lack of interest of the cabinet members to take note of the various important matters including hike in petroleum prices and electricity loadshedding.
The token walk out created serious quorum problem in the Upper House of the Parliament and forced its Chairman Farooq H Naek to announce adjournment of the House for 15 minutes, as only three senators belonging to PPP were present when the lawmakers belonging to opposition parties including JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami, PML-Q, PML-N, Pakhtunkhwa Miilli Awami Party, National Party along with coalition partners MQM and ANP left the House in protest.
The chair also asked the government to present a final report on the power and water situation in Balochistan on Tuesday when the House will resume its sitting in the evening.
Leader of the House Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Sabir Baloch and Soghra Imam were the only PPP's senators who were present in the House while the opposition members were also persuading Bokhari to join them in the walk out. However, the Chair adjourned the House for 15 minutes after the lack of quorum in the House.
Earlier, speaking on a point of order, JUI-F's Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haidri pointed out the absence of the ministers in the House saying that no minister was present in the House as the members were raising important issues like increase in POL prices and electricity loadshedding.
"Is this the seriousness of the government to resolve the issues of the masses, as no minister is present to take note of the senators who are raising important issues in the House", Haidri asked the Chair, adding that the government on one hand was making tall claims in the name of Balochistan package while on the other not a single minister was present in the House to respond as the electricity was not available in 16 districts of Balochistan for the last 22 days while the loadshedding has created great problems for the masses of the country. He also announced that they were going to stage token walk out against the lack of seriousness of the ministers, which was also joined by senators belonging to other opposition parties as well as treasury including the ANP and MQM.
Senator Zahid Khan of the ANP referred to the vacant slot of the chief whip of the treasury and also asked the government to immediately nominate any person from the treasury to the office. He also urged the chair to issue instructions to the government to ensure presence of the ministers in Senate.
Hasil Bazinjo of the National Party diverted attention of the House towards the power shutdown in the 16 districts for the last 22 days in Balochistan, adding that the situation has caused drought-like situation in the province. He further said that there is also serious lack of drinking water due to the unavailability of electricity to the tube wells in the districts.
Dr Ismail Buledi said that the case was not only in the 16 districts of Balochistan while it is complete blackout in the three districts of the province including Makran, Turbat and Panjgore.
Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti raised the issue of 'extra judicial' killing in Balochistan and criticised the government for its alleged lack of interest to take notice of the situation. He also pointed out that the prime minister in his speech in the Senate did not like to spell out solution to the matter. Senator Mohammad Ali Durrani while criticising the increase in POL prices said that it was for the first time that diesel prices were more than the prices of petrol in the country and also asked the government to reverse the decision as the increase has greatly troubled the common man.
Meanwhile, Senator Nelofar Bakhtyar called for a legislation to make it mandatory for the prime minister, chief minister and governors of all provinces and their family members to undertake medical check from the government hospitals. Due to this, she argued that the chief executives of the federal and the provinces would get to know about the deteriorated situations in the government hospitals. The House was later adjourned to meet again on Tuesday at 4pm.