ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz on Friday lambasted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for staying silent over 9th September debacle involving the arrests of 10 PTI MNAs from the premises of the Parliament House by unknown masked men — a move that attracted strong backlash from numerous members of the two houses of the parliament.

“Till now, no statement has come from the prime minister on this incident. He did not bother to express solidarity with his colleagues,” the opposition leader said on the floor of the house in the Senate session. “Where is the prime minister?” Faraz asked. “It is by virtue of becoming the member of that house (National Assembly) that he has been installed on the position of the prime minister,” the senator said.

“This shows you are not interested at all — this government does not care about the parliament at all.”

Later, in a rare move, the treasury senators walked out of the house against the decision of Deputy Chairman Senate Syedaal Khan to allow Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Falak Naz to attend the house proceedings.

The treasury senators protested over this move, saying that Naz’s membership was suspended for two “working” days by Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani for “unruly behaviour” in Senate earlier on Tuesday.

The opposition senators contradicted the treasury’s stance on the grounds that the chairman Senate suspended Naz’s legislative membership for two days, not two working days, a period that passed on Thursday.

“I hereby suspend the membership of Senator Falak Naz for two days,” Gilani had ruled, following verbal clash between the PTI senator and Faisal Vawda on Tuesday, and adjourned the house till Thursday, before the Senate met again on Friday.

Harsh arguments were exchanged between the lawmakers from the two sides of the aisle in Friday’s session. After the treasury side walked out, treasury member Danesh Kumar from Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) pointed out the quorum that was found to be lacking. The session was subsequently adjourned till Saturday (today).

Earlier, the opposition leader demanded of the deputy chairman to ensure the participation of the ministers in the house.

“Not a single minister is here — if they don’t value the parliament, better to shut it down then,” Faraz deplored.

Addressing the chair, PTI Senator Fawzia Arshad said, “Yesterday, you said, we are lucky that four or five ministers are here. We are not lucky, it’s their duty— they have to be here. They are not doing us any favour for coming here—you should have deferred the proceedings till all ministers were here.”

Apart from opposition senators, Treasury lawmaker Saadia Abbasi from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) also slammed the absence of lawmakers from the house.

“No minister is here — you should suspend the house proceedings till ministers are here— we will talk to the air till ministers arrive,” she said.

Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik finally joined the house proceedings. He apologised to the house, and answered queries of the senators related to question hour.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024