Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Friday grilled officials and minister of state for Interior Ministry for not providing answers to multiple questions pending since last many sessions of the House. The speaker expressed annoyance over absence of senior officials of the Interior Ministry during proceedings of the House and observed that more than a dozen queries of lawmakers have not been responded since past many sessions and their answers are yet to be submitted.
The speaker directed that joint secretary and section officer of the ministry present in the gallery should get out. He directed the secretary interior to reach the House within five minutes. This is not the first time that the government is strongly criticized over not taking the Parliament's business seriously. The treasury benches have been criticized for lack of quorum, absence of ministers and not taking the business seriously many times.
Minister of State Talal Chaudhry, however, said that his ministry sought replies to some questions asked by the members from provinces, but the answers were not furnished till Friday. The speaker responded that majority of the questions not answered by the ministry have nothing to do with the provinces.
To a question about performance of Islamabad Police, the minister said that numerous steps have been taken to improve performance of the police. He said that modern reporting rooms have been established at fourteen police stations in the federal capital.
He said the best medical treatment is being provided to those officials of law enforcement agencies who were injured during the sit-in in Islamabad by a religious group. He said that the government will send them abroad for treatment purposes, if needed. Dr Nafisa Shah raised question about the morale of the Islamabad Police after signing of agreement of the government with the protesters of sit-in at Faizabad Interchange.
Shehryar Afridi of PTI raised question about the utility of Safe City Project when the police start examining the cars during evening in the capital city by throwing torch light on them. The House also witnessed a brief protest by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member Nafisa Inayatullah Khattak against 'rude and non-serious' attitude of the Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry while responding to a question asked by the member.
Khattak asked the minister to apologize for his behavior while standing in front of the speaker dice in the House. Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister for Postal Services Maulana Amir Zaman said that a summary has been sent for approval to allot government residential accommodations to the employees of all the constitutional bodies, including National Assembly and Senate Secretariats.
The government also laid a bill 'The Health Services Academy (Restructuring) Bill, 2017.' The bill was moved by government lawmaker Farhana Qamar. In process of tabling the bill Dr Nafisa Shah of PPPP asked Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi to first take up another business. However, the chair insisted to continue with the business for which he had already called. This invited Dr Shazia Sobia to point out quorum which led to headcount and the sitting was adjourned on account of failing to meet the required minimum number to run the House.
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