ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday extended 'The Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020' and 'The Covid-19 (Prevention of Smuggling) Ordinance, 2020' for a further period of 120 days by passing separate resolutions.

The resolutions were moved by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan, in the house, which then adopted both the resolutions with majority votes.

While opposing the ordinances, Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said the government should have made legislation on the ordinances instead of extending their period.

He said the government had four months after the promulgations of the ordinances but it did not make any legislation during that period.

He said consensus could have been developed with opposition for the legislations but the government did not do so.

"I asked the government to follow proper procedure for legislation and to bring these ordinances in the form of bills in the house for passage," he added.

Awan said there was a provision in the Constitution under the 18th Constitution Amendment, under which the ordinances could be extended, adding that the government would introduce bills on the ordinances by developing consensus with opposition.

Earlier, when the house proceedings started, the lawmakers belonging to opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal headed by Maulana Asad Mehmood did not attend the session and instead witnessed the proceedings by sitting in the speaker's gallery in protest.

They were of the view that the party members were not given to speak on the Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Bill, 2020, passed by the joint sitting of the parliament.

The PPP MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf said the MMA members were not given opportunity to give their point of view during the joint sitting on the FATF-related bills, which compelled them to lodge their protest by sitting on the speaker's gallery.

The NA Speaker Asad Qaiser said it was an insult of the house and the rules did not permit any anyone to protest in the speaker's gallery.

Suspending the House for 15 minutes, he directed the PTI chief whip in NA Amir Dogar to bring the protesting MPs to the House.

On the request of Dogar, they ended the protest.

Maulana Mehmood said they were not the enemy of the country and were ready to support anything in favour of the country.

He regretted that the government did not allow the party to give its point of view, while making legislation on the FATF.

"We, the opposition was onboard with the government on the [FATF] bill," he added.

The House unanimously passed a legislation moved by the PML-N MNA Ayaz Sadiq on the 73rd anniversary of the National Assembly.

Through the resolution, the house reaffirmed to remain faithful to the declaration made by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that the country would be a democratic state based on Islamic principles of social justice and strengthening of federation.

Speaking on a point of order, MQM-P MNA Salahuddin drew the attention of the government towards power breakdown and other flood-related issues. He demanded a meeting of the committee on energy be convened besides summoning the HESCO officials to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal said the crops and houses of the people of Balochistan had been destroyed in the recent floods, but the government was acting as 'a silent spectator.' He called upon the government to take measures immediately for giving relief to the people.

PPP's Abdul Qadir Patel said his party believed in ideology and there would be no compromise on politics of principals.

Citing a report of Transparency International, he said that Rs118 billion corruption was done during the PTI's two years in power.

The PPP MNA was stopped by the speaker saying he should not resort to political point-scoring as the House had passed a resolution few minutes ago not to resort to attacking rival political parties.

On this, he pointed the quorum, and the House was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday at 4pm.

Rana Tanveer, the chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presented audit reports in the House.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020