Bilawal criticises NA Speaker

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed that the Speaker National Assembly has "locked down" the Parliament by restricting the standing committees from working. "Standing Committees are brain, eyes, ears and hands of the Parliament but the Speaker National Assembly is halting them from working in the name of austerity measures. The notification was issued on Monday night; Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser cancelled all the meetings of standing committees and sub-committees and directed that all meetings shall only be held during sessions of the National Assembly. The notification was issued at a time when the speaker and deputy speaker are aboard for playing cricket," the PPP chairman expressed these views while addressing a news conference here on Tuesday.
PPP leaders Farhatullah Babar, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Sherry Rehman, Rubina Khalid, Chaudhry Manzoor, Dr Mehreen Bhutto and Palwasha Khan were also present on this accession. Bilawal said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had attacked the Parliament by sitting on a container in 2014 and now the attacks on Parliament are being carried out from inside the Parliament itself.
He said that the speaker cannot impose restrictions on standing committees. The law does not permit the speaker to suspend the standing committees' meetings. "It is a fascist move that is tantamount to deviation from the Constitution," he said. He urged the speaker to revoke this decision, pointing out that suspending standing committee sessions would not be helpful in running the Lower House of the Parliament.
He said that the speaker of National Assembly is making the House dysfunctional by stopping the standing committees from functioning in the name of austerity. "How is it possible to hold meetings of 35 standing committees in 10 rooms available for the purpose in the Parliament when the session normally continues from 10 to 14 days?" he asked. The PPP chairman said that Parliament is incomplete without the functioning of standing committees. He said that standing committees do all the preparations for legislations. "The PTI's fascist government wants to make the Parliament redundant," he said.
He said that the standing committees of the Senate are functional whereas the standing committees of National Assembly have been made dysfunctional. Functioning of standing committees cannot be stopped according to law, he said. He said that the speaker should immediately withdraw his decision. "We will fight on this issue. If the Parliament would be run in this way then opposition would have minimum options. This way is tantamount to weaken the democracy and democratic institutions. Parliament is a forum of the representatives of the people for peaceful protest. The PTI government is stopping the democratic way and forcing the people to take drastic steps which may lead the country to a chaotic situation," he said.
He said, "Running the Parliament and economy of the country is not playing a cricket match." Bilawal also advised Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani to resign as he was the candidate of the then joint opposition but now the composition of opposition has changed so it wants to bring another consensus candidate for the slot of chairman Senate.
"The makeup of the opposition is being changed and it would be morally better for the chairman Senate to resign from his position," he said. He said that it is ironic that a person who claims that he is not frightened of death is scared of production order. The chairman PPP said, "Interviews of Ihsanullah Ihsan, Kulbhushan Jadhav, Indian pilot Abhinandan and traitor General Pervaiz Musharraf can be aired but the interviews of the youth from Waziristan and former president cannot be aired. This is because press is not free today and is facing censorship."
He said that three channels have been taken off-air which is highly condemnable. Now, several journalists are not able to use Twitter because their twitter accounts can be closed. He said, "Freedom is our basic right and we will fight for these rights till the end." The chairman PPP said that the government has totally surrendered before the IMF and this PTI-IMF budget has made the lives of the people hell. Every Pakistani is suffering from price hike and PPP will come out against this fascist government, he maintained.