Production order cannot be issued in mutiny case: speaker
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, May 26: National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain said on Wednesday he had refrained from issuing production orders of ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, MNA, because of the charges of mutiny, treason, etc.
, against him, which were later proved in the court.
He said the administrative constraints also became hurdle in invoking rule 90 since Mr Hashmi was being tried inside the jail owing to sensitivity of the case and the government was unable to provide security cover for him.
In reply to newsmen's queries during a workshop for parliamentary journalists at the Parliament House, the speaker said, "in my opinion production orders could be issued in favour of any legislator detained under the MPO or any other law, but not mutiny."
To a query about the naming of MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman as leader of the opposition in the lower house and the opposition's objections, Chaudhry Amir said, "whatever I have done is in accordance with the law and I have sufficiently argued it already".
While denying that he had given any ruling to bail out the government, Mr Hussain said he stood by his ruling on the LFO which was vindicated when the said set of laws was approved by the parliament to be operative part of the constitution through 17th amendment.
He said he had ruled that the LFO was part of the Constitution and the same perception was admitted by the negotiating sides first before its validation. Mr Hussain told a journalist that he would consider any application from a private television channel to allow coverage of the house proceedings, adding that he was on the look out for a television channel which could volunteer to do live coverage of the house.
"Rules do not provide for the spot coverage of house committee proceedings since their final reports are subject to presentation in the parliament which may reject or approve them", he added.
The speaker avoided to respond a question from a female journalist, "as to when article 6 dealing with abrogation of the Constitution will come into force to stop military interventions which disrupt democracy."
Earlier, former speaker Gohar Ayub Khan told a questioner that the then president (Leghari) had become angry with him when he issued production order of Asif Zardari by invoking rule 90 and arranged a get-together between Nawaz Sharif, leader of the opposition Benazir Bhutto and Mr Zardari.
He said the production orders were issued with a good intention of creating congenial atmosphere for bringing the government and opposition closer by ending their acrimony.
Leader of the house in the Senate Wasim Sajjad called on the media to give both versions while critically reporting the house proceedings in order to make their reports more balanced.
He also asked parliamentary reporters to attain information through the rule of business books and constitution for making their reporting more factual and objective.
