Virtual session of NA is tantamount to bypassing parliament: Mushahidullah

The major reason for opposing the proposed virtual session of the National Assembly and Senate by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is because there is no such provision in the Constitution and required amendment in the rules.

Talking to Business Recorder, vice-president of the PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan said that his party is also skeptical about government's intention to "bulldoze" the upcoming budget session by bypassing parliament.

"If the budget session is held through virtual arrangements, it would be tantamount to bypassing the parliament, and the budget if it is passed will have no constitutional status," he added.

To make amendments in the rule, the government will have to convene the session of the parliament, he asserted adding "if the parliament can be convened for making amendments in the rules, it can also be summoned for holding regular session of the House".

He lamented that the only platform which should have been playing a proactive role in this challenging time of Covid-19 pandemic has been locked down by the government, "indicative of the fact that people at the helm of affairs are bent upon making an already weak parliament completely redundant".

He pointed out that the National Assembly hall has the capacity of accommodating about 800 if the ground floor galleries are included.

"So it is no issue to convene the House for a regular session as hardly 150 members turn up in every session," he said.

To a question about virtual session of parliament in some parts of the world, Khan said: "Those are the real and genuine democracies...in a country like ours, it will take more than a hundred years to replicate their system".

Last Tuesday, the PML-N had called a joint meeting of the party's MNAs and senators - parliamentary advisory group - in which the party, after holding detailed deliberations, opposed the idea of virtual session of the parliament and warned that it will use all "options" to prevent any such move.

"PML-N will neither support nor participate in any such session without the physical presence of the members of the National Assembly... PML-N will go to any extent to ensure the government drops the idea of the virtual session and instead convenes the regular session with physical presence of the members," party's parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Khawaja Asif had told a press conference after the meeting.

He said that if around 150 people can attend the federal cabinet meetings regularly and if both executive and judiciary are functioning as per routine, suspending the parliament and locking it down is not only unconstitutional but also an effort to distort the Constitution.

"The budget session is also going to be held shortly and by convening this virtual session, the government may intend to arrange the budget session through virtual link, and the sole purpose behind this will be to impose an anti-people budget which would be disastrous," he added.

He contended that the government is against the lockdown in the country to contain the coronavirus from spreading "but it is bent upon putting big locks on the doors of parliament, which indicates there is some other 'hidden' motive to intentionally keep the supreme democratic institution shut".