Placement of words in a piece of writing has vital role as these demonstrate intention of the author and same was evident in the National Assembly on Monday when a word "only", mentioned in clause 14(3) of the proposed Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan Bill, 2012 became a bone of contestation between treasury and opposition benches.
A motion moved by the MQM for removal of the word "only" from the clause regarding appointment of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) created an atmosphere of total distrust and doubt and consequently the Bill was put off for some other day. The proceeding of the House was derailed when the parliamentarians from the opposition benches strongly criticized the proposed amendment moved by the MQM.
The clause read: No person shall be appointed as the CEO or Director of the Authority unless he is a citizen of Pakistan only. Even one member of the treasury benches also objected to the proposed amendment. The PML-N parliamentarians were of the view that the proposed amendment in the clause was aimed at facilitating dual nationals.
However, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Syed Khusrshid Shah tried hard to settle the issue, he visited both PML-N and MQM benches and talked to their leaders but both the parties stuck to their stances. A woman member of PML-N pointed out quorum of the House and bells were rung to start counting of the members. The counting seems to have established shortage of quorum although the speaker did not mention and announced to adjourn the House. What was extremely interesting that the PML-N members were present in the House during the counting despite the fact that the quorum was pointed out by one of their female colleague.
The proceeding of the House also exposed that neither the opposition nor the ruling party was willing to introduce a law in the House to bar dual nationals from occupying any public office. For this purpose, both the parties threw the ball in each other's court. Khawaja Muhammad Asif of PML-N, while strongly criticising the amendment stated that his party would support the government if it brings legislation to disallow the dual nationality holders across the board including judges, generals and bureaucrats for holding public offices.
"If politicians are disqualified on the basis of their dual nationality then why not the bureaucrats and Judges," he posed a question. Khurshid Shah of PPP offered the government support to the PML-N if it tables the bill in the Parliament for legislation against dual nationality holders.
The Deputy Speaker National Assembly, Faisal Karim Kundi, also remarked that judges and bureaucrats holding dual nationality should be refrained from the government services as the Parliamentarians holding dual nationality are disqualified.
Zafar Ali Shah of ruling PPP also supported the PML-N stance on the amendment moved by MQM, saying that word "only" was meant to restrict the dual nationals from becoming head of the Authority, as its removal would pave the way for the dual nationals to occupy critical posts in the authority. He also used the opportunity to criticising his party over recently enacted local government law in his native province. He said that the anger of the people of Sindh was evident from Hyderabad rally.
However, some voices were heard from the treasures benches disliking the criticism by Zafar Ali Shah especially his statement about what he said a flop rally of the PPP in Hyderabad. As usual the proceeding of the National Assembly started with an hour late and only 50 members were present when the Deputy Speaker started question hour, which is the most vital part of the proceeding.