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| September 20, 2005 | Tuesday | Sha'aban 15, 1426 |
Opposition walks out of NA in protest against rulings
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: The combined opposition on Monday evening staged a walkout from the National Assembly minutes before the adjournment of the proceedings to protest against speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain for not allowing them to speak on glaring incidents of administrative manipulation in the third phase of local councils’ polls.
The lower house, which resumed its sitting after a two-day recess, started the proceedings 40 minutes late when it was actually supposed to start at 7:00pm and was adjourned only after one and a half hours.
As soon as the question hour was over and the regular agenda got under way, the speaker said: “Let us finish it early since it is a sacred night (Shab-i-Baraat) and spare our time for prayers.”
Raja Parvez Ashraf of PPP Parliamentarians wanted to draw the attention of the house towards the ‘unopposed election’ of a cousin of federal minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain as tehsil Nazim Dina (Jhelum). However, the speaker ruled his point of order as no point of order.
Mr Ashraf said three PPP men, led by district Jhelum President Sohail Zafar, were brutally beaten up by plain-clothes police officers outside the Returning Officer’s court when they went there to file nomination papers.
He said their counsel Col (retd) Anwar Afridi was also beaten inside the Returning Officer’s court and then thrown out by two strong men.
He said that when they complained, the Returning Officer simply replied that Chaudhry Javed Husain, who was running for the tehsil nazim’s seat, was the brother of Chief Justice Lahore High Court and the cousin of Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain.
Speaker Chaudhry, however, denied the legislator from further elaborating on the details about the official manipulations in the third-phase of local councils. He said: “This doesn’t come under the definition of point of order. Moreover, since it pertains to Punjab province it may be raised in the Punjab Assembly which is in session.”
Mr Ashraf then led the walkout which was also joined by the entire opposition parliamentary groups, including the MMA.
The speaker also interrupted an MMA female legislator, Samia Raheel Qazi, from raising the issue of the discriminatory attitude of PIA staff against female stewardesses as she said a number of notices were sent to the defence ministry in this regard but in vain.
When the house was about to rise for the day, Minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain assured the house that no incident had occurred in Dina as narrated by the PPP leader, adding that not only the tehsil nazim but all other candidates on special seats in the above-mentioned tehsil had returned unopposed.
Saad Rafiq of the PML (Nawaz) also tried in vain to speak about what he called government’s henchmen harassing local council candidates and their supporters in Rawalpindi. But his point of order was also ruled out of order by the speaker.
Meanwhile, the government admitted rampant corruption in PIA’s ticketing/reservation department and existence of a mafia of low-grade employees who held sway over the airlines’ affairs.
Major (retd) Tanvir Hussain, parliamentary secretary on defence, sought six weeks’ time for a thorough inquiry into the allegations of misbehaving with the air hostesses and corrupt practices. He said a report regarding it would be submitted in the house.
The issue was raised by MMA’s Mohammad Hanif Abbasi and others on a calling attention notice which was deferred in the last sitting of the lower house.
The parliamentary secretary also confessed that numerous complaints were received in the ministry about the discriminatory treatment, including harassment and exploitation, meted out to female staff, especially air hostesses, in the national flag carrier.
He refuted a member’s fear that the incumbent chairman, under whose chairmanship the Attock oil refinery and PSO were privatized, had been appointed in the PIA to privatize it as well.
Laiq Khan of the MMA claimed that a large number of complaints reaching the defence ministry and the PIA against the maltreatment meted out to a number of air hostesses had been hushed up.
The house deferred debate on admissibility of a number of adjournment motions of an identical nature by the opposition benches pointing out to several incidents regarding rigging in the third phase of local councils’ election.
The motion was read by MMA’s Liaqat Baloch and the co-movers were Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Saad Rafiq, Khwaja Asif, Parvaiz Malik, Farid Paracha and Raja Parvaiz Ashraf.
Mr Baloch through the adjournment motion pointed out that blatant violation of the election commission’s code of conduct was carried out as the governments of Punjab and Sindh used administrative machinery to ensure the results of their choice.
He said that false cases of a serious nature were registered against three legislators — Hanif Abbasi, Rana Mahmoodul Hasan and another MNA — to restrain them from taking part in the process.
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