The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a unanimous resolution, second of its kind in the same session, demanding the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to "fix a practical date for holding Local Governments elections after ensuring that all legal and administrative arrangements are in place throughout the country."
The resolution moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Dr Arif Alvi was unanimously passed following an apparent anger among the members over stance of the apex court on local governments' elections. The resolution states "this house is fully conscious of the imperative to hold LG elections throughout the country in accordance with the constitution...this house demands that the Election Commission of Pakistan carries out its functions as stated in Article 140-A(2) of the constitution, and holds these elections in a free, fair and transparent manner as soon as possible."
It further states, "this house reiterates that elections carried out in haste will violate the above article...this house demands that the ECP fix a practical date after ensuring that all legal and administrative arrangements are in place in the entire country."
This was the second resolution of its kind in the 6th session passed by the house on the day of its prorogation, as the house adopted a similar resolution on November 07, 2013, moved by PTI's parliamentarian Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Despite the passage of the resolution, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, sounded harsh in their strongly-worded statements on the floor of the house when they felt dejected over the treatment being meted out to the resolutions of the house.
"I'm astonished to see the house passed another resolution. My question is how long the house will make appeals and these [resolutions] will be thrown into the dustbins," said Sheikh Rohail Asghar of the ruling PML-N. He further said that if the parliamentarians were not able to get the parliamentary resolutions implemented, then they should avoid making a mockery of the house.
He urged the parliamentarians to stand united by putting aside their party differences for the supremacy of the parliament, which has been bestowed on it by the 180 million people of the country. Mehmood Khan Achakzi, chief of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, asserted that the resolution was to be considered as 'standing order' of the parliament and the ECP must obey the order. He said that parliament was a supreme institution and all others including judiciary and the army were subservient to the parliament.
However, the veteran parliamentarian clarified that they did not want confrontation among the state institutions, adding all the institutions are independent in their respective domains. Earlier, speaking on a point of order Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah appealed to the Supreme Court to postpone local government elections until March to ensure free‚ fair and transparent polls.
The fiery speech of the opposition leader triggered debate on LG polls who appealed to the judiciary not to ruin the other institutions and show some flexibility on the dates of the LG polls. "Why this house is not being given the honour...are you rewarding the people in such a way for their struggle to get you reinstated at a time when a military dictator sacked the judges," he posed a question, adding "we [MPs] will say that all the credit goes to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry for transferring the powers to the grassroots level if the LG polls are held in March 2014".
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had to expunge some of the opposition leader's words by terming it non-parliamentary, however, he continued saying "I am not just afraid of the contempt of the court but worried about the contempt of the people." He reminded the judiciary that when it needed the parliament's help it sought the support on 19th Amendment on the appointment of judges in the superior judiciary. He further said that if the judiciary will not give respect to parliament then who else would do it.
The leader of the opposition was also critical of the government's IMF programme. He said that the government was hell-bent to convert the country into Kenya to please the IMF. He also called upon the government to take measures to control inflationary trend in the country which had badly affected the poor.
"We will not accept the privatisation of major state institutions including Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel Mills at throw away prices," he said, adding that National Savings and National Bank of Pakistan are profit earning entities and they should not be privatised.
He also urged the government to give the overseas Pakistanis the right to vote who are contributing a lot in the country's economy by remitting $16 billion annually, adding that the opposition will support any piece of legislation tabled in the house in this regard.
Responding to the concerns of the opposition leader, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafiq said that the government believes that conducting LG elections in haste could prove detrimental to the democratic process. He said that the elections if conducted as per the present schedule would become controversial as the ECP is facing issues of printing of ballot papers and magnetised ink. He‚ however‚ admitted that it was their collective responsibility to ensure timely conduct of LG polls.
Regarding privatisation of state-owned entities‚ the minister categorically stated that Pakistan Railways would not be privatised as its deficit has shown declining trend in the first quarter. We have generated revenue above our set targets, he claimed. Unlike the PPP's previous government, he said no appointments have been made on political basis in state-owned institutions since the assumption of power by the PML-N government.
About electricity tariff‚ he regretted that the previous government of PPP failed to address the electricity crisis and left the burden of circular debt worth over Rs 500 billion unaddressed. The minister assured the house that the government would complete Nandipur Power Project‚ Neelum Jhelum‚ Jamshoro Power Project‚ Dasu Dam‚ Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park‚ Coal-based Gaddani Power Project as well as raising of Mangla Dam and extension of Tarbela in its tenure to overcome the electricity crisis and provide cheap electricity to the people.
Earlier, the house passed a resolution urging the government to take steps to ensure that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics functions as an autonomous body. Three private member bills were also tabled in the house which included "The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill‚ 2013", "The Ratification of International Treaties Bill, 2013" and "The Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2013". The Speaker referred the bills to the concerned Standing Committees for further deliberation.
Comments
Comments are closed.