ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The Senate was prorogued after a brief sitting on Friday amid an opposition boycott, as both sides in the house continued sniping at each other over affairs of the Pakistan International Airlines.
The opposition threatened to call another session of the upper house over what started as a government-inspired debate about the PIA on Thursday, which opposition boycotted to protest against a brief distributed by the national flag-carrier to deny allegations of wrongdoing levelled against its management by several members of both the opposition and treasury benches.
The government used Friday's sitting — lasting less than an hour — to denounce the boycott as a move to gag the press before Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro read out the presidential order proroguing the house after an 11-day session.
The opposition announced its plans at a news conference to requisition another session to focus on the issue and also move privilege motions for an alleged breach of the privilege of the house by what it called was PIA's move to "circumvent parliament" by issuing its brief before the debate on Thursday.
Leader of the house Wasim Sajjad told an opposition-less chamber that the government itself had offered the debate because various questions were being raised about an important national institution and that it was the right of the press to be briefed on matters of national importance.
"It will be bad for democracy to put restrictions on the press," he said and added: "Reports are published against us as well and I will speak the truth that we don't like this. But we will go for the press freedom to the last.
"Some things were said here which were not based on facts and the opposition is unhappy because the press was informed about the facts," he said.
NIAZI'S BACKPEDALLING: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who seemed to be back-pedalling after being in the forefront of levelling charges against the PIA management, particularly against its chairman, was harsh in taunting the opposition parties that the house could be run even without their presence.
"The treasury benches can run the house (without opposition)," he said, adding: "Democracy is the name of majority, and the opposition should not have a misunderstanding that the house cannot run without them."
Opposition leader Raza Rabbani mocked the ruling coalition's charge that the opposition sought to restrict press freedom in view of the number of journalists killed or abducted during the present government's tenure.
