ISLAMABAD: Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday abruptly prorogued the National Assembly session due to the continued protest by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over the Panamagate issue.

Despite repeated warnings by the speaker to PTI lawmaker from Islamabad Asad Umar to confine his speech to the report of Justice Qazi Faez Isa on a militant attack in Quetta, Mr Umar kept insisting that he had the right to respond to the points that were raised by PML-N legislator Daniyal Aziz while defending the prime minister and his family during Monday’s session.

Mr Umar was of the view that since Mr Aziz had made personal attacks on PTI chairman Imran Khan in his speech, the party’s members had the right to respond.

The speaker, however, reminded the PTI members that Mr Aziz had in fact responded to four speeches made by opposition members and that he could not allow any further discussion on the Panamagate issue.

Govt decision on regulatory bodies to be challenged in Supreme Court, says PPP

Mr Sadiq said it had been decided in his chamber that during the sitting on Tuesday the members would speak about the Qazi Faez Isa report and then Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who was present in the house, would wind up the debate.

The speaker sought help from PTI’s parliamentary leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi and asked the latter to tell his colleagues about the decision taken in his chamber. Mr Qureshi said the opposition members had talked only about the prime minister’s address in the assembly whereas Mr Aziz had discussed the whole Panama Papers case in his speech.

Mr Qureshi alleged that the PML-N legislator had “torn apart” the speaker’s ruling under which he had disallowed the opposition’s privilege motions against the prime minister by terming the matter sub judice. He asked the speaker to let Mr Umar speak on the matter, before opening up the debate on the Quetta inquiry commission report.

The speaker accused the PTI members of violating the agreement reached in his chamber, saying that he would not allow anyone to speak on the Panamagate issue. Giving warnings to Mr Umar, the speaker threatened to prorogue the session if the PTI leader continued to speak on the issue.

At one point, the house witnessed a pandemonium when the treasury and the opposition members started passing controversial remarks against each other.

The speaker read out the prorogation order amid opposition members’ slogans of “bhaag gaye, bhaag gaye [ran away, ran away]”, as soon as Mr Umar, despite receiving a final warning, continued to talk about the Panamagate issue.

The government and opposition members had agreed in the Business Advisory Committee that the present session would continue till Wednesday (today). The National Assembly, which met for five days during the winter session, failed to take up any item on the agenda due to the noisy protest by the opposition members over the Panamagate issue.

Although Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented in the house the interim report of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, tabling of the report was made possible through a supplementary agenda which was issued by the government after suspension of the rules on the private members’ day.

At the outset of the session, parli­a­mentary leader of the Pakistan Peo­ples Party Syed Naveed Qamar said he had come to know that the government planned to prorogue the session a day ahead of the agreed schedule.

Protesting over the possible move, PTI’s Shireen Mazari pointed out lack of quorum and the speaker had to suspend the proceedings for nearly an hour when he found that the house was not in order.

Regulatory bodies

When the members assembled again, PPP’s Naveed Qamar, speaking on a point of order, criticised the government’s decision to place the regulatory bodies under the direct control of the ministries.

In a major policy decision, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday transferred the administrative control of five key regulatory bodies to the respective ministries, apparently putting their relative independence in jeopardy.

According to the notification issued by the cabinet division, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Frequency Allocation Board and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority had been placed under the respective ministries.

Mr Qamar termed the decision “illegal and unconstitutional” and an attempt to “end the independence” of the regulatory bodies. He was of the view that such decisions required prior approval of the Council of Common Interests.

Mr Qamar regretted that the regulatory bodies had been established through statutory laws and the government had ended their independence simply with one stroke of pen and through a notification. He said the government’s decision would be challenged in courts and it would be overturned.

Earlier in the day, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah said at a press conference that the PPP would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.

Defending the decision, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif said the regulatory bodies were earlier functioning under the cabinet division and their administrative control had been transferred to their respective line ministries.

The minister said the State Bank of Pakistan was the country’s biggest regulator and it had been functioning under the Ministry of Finance for decades. He said the approval of the CCI was required only if the laws governing the regulatory bodies were changed.

Published in Dawn December 21st, 2016