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| 01 April 2004 | Thursday | 10 Safar 1425 |
MNAs told to be decent to women colleagues
ISLAMABAD, March 31: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Wednesday asked members to be decent to female colleagues and also promised self-restraint in conducting proceedings.
Women members on the treasury benches had burst into protest against apparently sarcastic remarks about one of them by two male colleagues from the ruling coalition. The speaker as well as the prime minister's adviser on women development, Neelofar Bakhtiar, intervened to pacify the protesters.
Both Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada (National Alliance, Punjab) and Rashid Akbar Khan (PML-Q, Punjab) said they had seen a woman member's 'beautiful face' on television screen as they denied a complaint that PTV had not given proper coverage to Tuesday's discussion in the house on a call-attention notice about Karo-kari killings in Sindh.
Kashmala Tariq (PML-Q, Punjab) led the protest and threatened to raise a question of breach of privilege as opposition members welcomed her outburst against the ruling party by thumping their desks.
"Nobody listens to us inside or outside the party," Ms Tariq said and complained that women's causes were not publicized by the state electronic media though President Pervez Musharraf wanted women parliamentarians to speak out about these issues.
In the absence of Information and Broadcasting Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed from the house, Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao promised to have an inquiry held into the complaint about inadequate television coverage on the Karo-kari debate. "We want to empower women rather than ignore them," he said of the government's policy. Ms Bakhtiar pleaded to house members to respect the dignity of women.
The speaker said parliament members 'should respect each other, whether they are males or females' and avoid injuring each other's feeling by words or 'body language'.
He offered a personal apology for the feelings hurt in Wednesday's bitter argument preceding a dull debate on the president's Jan 17 speech to a joint session of parliament.
But a remark by the speaker that he felt ashamed of members' behaviour when they raised noise provoked an advice to him from PPP's Aitzaz Ahsan to cut down chair's interruptions during members' speeches.
"The speaker is called a speaker but does not speak," Mr Ahsan said and recalled an incident in the UK's House of Lords where he said a judge had resigned for interrupting lawyers 30 times.
He said that in America the parliamentary speaker had to stand up for speaking and the same was the case in India. But in Pakistan, he pointed out, the speaker felt inclined to speak too often by remaining seated in the chair.
The speaker held Mr Ahsan's point of order valid and said: "I agree that the speaker should not speak much". But he said he would have to intervene if rules were violated or objectionable remarks were made.
"I do not speak without reason and will not speak so in future as well," he said. After several speeches on the president's address from both the treasury and opposition benches, the house was adjourned until 9:30am on Thursday.
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