04 December 2004	Saturday	21 Shawwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: Acting Senate Chairman Commander (retired) Khalilur Rehman observed on Friday that the government should change its ministers if they continued to remain absent from the House.

The observation of the chair was preceded by admission of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, that despite repeated requests by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the ministers chose to remain absent from the House when it was in session.

Only seven ministers were present in the Senate at different times on Friday out of 33 ministers and 26 ministers of state. Earlier, taking notice of the absence of the relevant ministers, particularly Babar Khan Ghauri and Liaquat Ali Jatoi, during the "Question Hour" and "Points of Order," Commander Rehman said he would talk to Prime Minister Aziz and bring the issue to his notice.

The government was put in an embarrassing situation as it could not answer some queries during the 'Question Hour' due to the absence of its relevant ministers from the treasury benches. Some of the opposition members criticized the government for maintaining what it said was an "army of ministers" who did not deem it appropriate to attend the house.

The acting chairman, Leader of the House, Wasim Sajjad, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan, conceded to opposition's criticism of the government for lack of minister's interest in the affairs of the house and assured the Senate that necessary steps would be taken to address the problem.

Felicitating the newly appointed whip, the chair in a light hearted mood offered to give a hunter to the newly appointed chief whip of the ruling party to assure presence of ministers in the Senate.

The tongue in cheek remarks passed by Commander Rehman preceded observations by the chair that the government should replace its ministers if they continued to remain absent from the upper house. He also asked Dr Afgan to ensure the presence of the ministers in the house.

When the minister told the acting chairman that even the directives of the prime minister were not acceded to by the ministers, Commander Rehman said he would be forced to take strict action if ministerial absence from the house continued.

The Leader of the House observed that Minister for Ports and Shipping, Babar Khan Ghauri, was a member of the upper house and it was not proper that other commitments were given priority over the house.

He said it was an established parliamentary practice that when a house is in session, the ministers cancel all other engagements to attend the proceedings. Previously, he said, the ministers would not go out of the capital whenever a house was in session.

The opposition and treasury members noted the absence of ministers when a question of Senator Ismail Buledi concerning the ports and shipping could not be answered. The leave application of Mr Ghauri was given to the chair after the absence of the minister had been noted by the senators when questions relating to his ministry went unanswered.

Speaking on the issue, Senator Anwer Bhinder said that the ministers should not be absent without intimation to the chair. He requested the chairman to issue a directive that no minister of state or any other minister should answer a question on behalf of the concerned minister.

The problem of ministers' absence again surfaced when the chair was dealing with various points of order prompting the opposition members to ask the acting chairman to issue strictures against the ministers. The chair said the ministers' absence was a very old and lingering issue and that he would certainly take some steps in this regard.

The issue again came to light when speaking on points of order, some of the members criticized the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for allegedly creating hurdles in the implementation of development schemes in their respective constituencies.

MMA Senator Sahibzada Khalid Jan and treasury members Pari Gul Agha and Bibi Yasmeen Shah of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) said that Wapda was not cooperating with them for implementation of development schemes in their constituencies.

Ms Agha and Ms Shah said the Wapda had been making wrong estimates of the cost of their proposed schemes which the senators wanted to complete in their constituencies from their own development funds.