ISLAMABAD: Uproar and raising of slogans by treasury and opposition members against each other were observed on Monday in the National Assembly, when Abdul Qadir Patel tried to respond to allegations leveled against him by Federal Minister Ali Haider Zaidi in the house on Friday when read out a JIT report (in the Uzair Baloch case).

When Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser allowed Abdul Qadir Patel of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to speak on the floor of the house, Qadir Patel said, "In my absence in the house, an unauthentic and unconfirmed JIT report was read. Mr. Speaker allow me to speak, I will not violet the rules. Serious allegations were leveled against me and I want to respond. I want to talk and expose the incompetent and inefficient government. I said yesterday, I will always say, more than 20 prime ministers came but who is the prime minister who has turned his back and has taken U-turns?"

On these remarks, the treasury and opposition members started creating uproar and started raising slogans each other. The speaker National Assembly turned off the mic of Qadir Patel, and said it was unethical attitude.

"Are you giving your personal explanation? You are making a political speech," the speaker said.

The speaker, while pointing towards senior PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, said "this method is not correct. Raja Sahib, this is against morality."

When the speaker turned off the mic of Patel, the opposition members started protest for not allowing the floor to Patel.

The treasury members also raised slogans "Qatil (murderer), Qatil (murderer)".

Earlier, Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said that the government had taken notice of making of insulting cartoons about the Hindu community.

She said that such cartoons were being removed from the social media. She said that one person had also been identified, who belonged to Faisalabad. She said hat more actions were being taken. No one will be allowed to insult any religion, she emphasized.

While moving a calling attention notice regarding closing of OPDs in federal government hospitals in Islamabad, Ali Nawaz Awan said that OPDs were closed due to the coronavirus. He said that 8,000 patients used to come to the Polyclinic, and 10,000 to the PIMS hospital daily. He said that the people were facing severe problems due to closure of the OPDs.

He said that the Supreme Court had also ordered the opening of OPDs. He said if OPDs remain closed, patients were at risk of death. He said that many patients other than coronavirus such as suffering from heart diseases, appendicitis etc were not being operated in the PIMS and Polyclinic hospitals.

"Mr speaker, you should give ruling on it," he said. Parliamentary Secretary on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Nausheen Hamid said, while responding to the calling attention notice, that there was a lot of rush in OPDs in public hospitals of Islamabad. She said that three to four people come with the patient as attendants. We had closed the OPDs due to threat of spread of coronavirus.

She said that OPDs had been closed on the recommendation of the WHO. She said that coronavirus cases were declining, and... will be opened if directed by the NCOC. She said that the PIMS and Polyclinic were two hospitals for a population of 2.2 million. However, she said that emergency of the PIMS and Polyclinic hospitals were opened and had been strengthened. She said that patients needing operations were being operated upon.

Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser referred the calling attention notice to relevant Standing Committee of the House for further discussion. As many as 11 periodic reports of various Standing Committees were also presented in the house.

Later, responding to a call attention notice, Minister for Energy, Power Division, Omar Ayub Khan informed the House that Rs5.5 billion had been allocated for the up-gradation of transmission system in the erstwhile FATA. He said that once the system was upgraded, it would help in reducing the power load shedding in the tribal districts.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020