ISLAMABAD: The opposition on Friday disrupted the proceedings of the National Assembly on the issue of three missing aides to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co- chairman Asif Ali Zardari, barring Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaz Aziz from giving a policy statement.

The persisting problem of incomplete quorum in the house again put the treasury benches in an awkward situation as soon after the PPP announced a boycott, one of its members, Ramesh Lal, pointed out the quorum, compelling Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, who was presiding over the session, to adjourn it till Monday evening.

Like the Senate, there is a regular complaint in the National Assembly from the opposition benches and even from Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq that ministers do not attend the proceedings and answers to queries concerning various ministries are given by parliamentary secretaries or irrelevant MNAs from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

On Thursday, the government faced a similar situation when PPP leader Dr Shazia Sobia pointed out the quorum when Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was giving a statement about the Saudi Arabia-led military alliance of 41 Muslim states reportedly headed by former chief of the army staff retired Gen Raheel Sharif. Her call stunned the minister whose statement remained incomplete.

The presence of Mr Aziz in the house on Friday indicated that he wanted to give a statement on an important issue. Soon after the conclusion of the question hour, the deputy speaker said: “Sartaz Aziz sahib is here to give a policy statement.”

The deputy speaker offered the mike to Mr Aziz. However, opposition parties’ leaders, including Naveed Qamar of the PPP and Dr Shireen Mazari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), spoke loudly, asking the deputy speaker to allow him to speak after them.

Finally the deputy speaker permitted Mr Qamar to speak.

He said the PPP had been asking the government who had picked its workers and why they were not being presented before a magistrate. “We do not know which law exists in the country. People are picked up and they go missing,” he regretted.

“They were picked up only because they have some connections with an individual. We will consider that they have been picked up by the government until we are given any evidence about them,” he said.

He said it was for the fifth consecutive day that the PPP members had sought the government’s reply about missing workers of their party, but nobody was ready to respond.

The PPP leader said he had observed many times in the past that sometimes the ministers gave statements even on provincial matters. “But here we believe that the issue of three missing workers of the PPP is a federal one,” he said.

Mr Qamar said the situation confronting the PPP today could be faced by the PML-N tomorrow. “Earlier, the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) has faced a similar situation which we are experiencing now and tomorrow the PML-N can face it,” he warned.

He said if the government had any information about the missing persons then it should inform the house, otherwise it should admit that it was helpless.

Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman, who had promised the PPP two days ago that he would apprise it of the whereabouts of the missing workers, did not attend the proceedings on Thursday, after which the PPP had boycotted them.

Although the minister was present in the house on Friday, he did not say even a single word on the issue, after which the PPP members staged a walkout.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017