ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday suddenly delayed the National Assembly session scheduled for Friday (today) without giving any reason, prompting a strong criticism from opposition parties.

An official handout issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Thursday evening said President Dr Arif Alvi had “withdrawn” the previous order of summoning the NA session on Friday morning.

Later, through a notification it said the president “has been pleased to summon the session on April 22 at 4pm in the Parliament House, Islamabad”.

There was no official word from the government circles about the sudden move to delay the session, and a number of ministers, including Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, and senior officials of the NA Secretariat, when contacted, also expressed their ignorance about the reason behind the move.

Opposition claims PTI govt wants to introduce new tax amnesty scheme through presidential ordinance

Reacting strongly, the opposition parties alleged that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had postponed the session as it wanted to introduce a new tax amnesty scheme through a presidential ordinance. The opposition also alleged that the government was running away from parliament as it did not want to disclose the conditions currently being negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.

Read: PTI govt’s first tax amnesty scheme ready for launch

Talking to Dawn, parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the NA Syed Naveed Qamar termed the government’s decision to postpone the session “unprecedented” and a “mockery” of the Constitution. The PPP leader regretted that it was ironic that the government had done so only because it wanted to promulgate an ordinance to introduce a tax amnesty scheme. He said the rulers had proved time and again that they had no respect for parliament and the Constitution. He also challenged the government’s plan of laying the ordinance after its promulgation before the National Assembly as a money bill only to bypass the Senate where the ruling party was in a minority.

The president has already summoned the session of the Senate on April 15.

Earlier in the day, speaking at a news conference at Bilawal House in Karachi, Mr Qamar and PPP MNA Dr Nafeesa Shah had termed the last-minute calling off of the National Assembly session akin “to stealing the mandate of 200 million people of Pakistan”.

“No ordinance is allowed if the assembly is in session and this is high-handedness of the government to call off the session just so they could bring in the amnesty ordinance by stealth,” said Ms Shah.

Another U-turn

“This is yet another U-turn by the government, whose finance minister had strongly opposed the previous government [of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] for amnesty schemes both of which came through finance bills and laws rather than through an ordinance,” she said.

Ms Shah alleged that the “incompetent government” was giving the amnesty scheme to give a legal cover to financial crime, making actions of the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency meaningless.

Spokesperson for the PML-N Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that the government had intentionally postponed the National Assembly session to “hide the conditions of the IMF bailout and dodge parliamentary accountability over its shady deal”.

She said the “incapable” PTI government was going to sign a “shady deal” with the IMF behind closed doors which would further crush the already overburdened working class of Pakistan.

Read: Pakistan closer to reaching accord with IMF: Asad

She said that the “abettors of dictators” were trying to enforce a tax amnesty scheme through an ordinance instead of getting it through parliament, alleging that the move was aimed at granting another NRO-like deal to the likes of Aleema Khan, the sister of the prime minister, and former PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen.

Ms Aurangzeb, who had served as the information minister in the previous PML-N government, recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced soon after the elections that he would respond to the questions of the assembly members on a weekly basis, but was now “working to shut the parliamentary proceedings down to hide his failures from the people”.

The PML-N leader alleged that the people of Pakistan were being kept in dark by the PTI regarding the most important transaction which would affect every citizen directly. “The government is avoiding the parliament’s session because it wants to hide from the truth and is extremely wary of the accountability of their actions by the true representatives of the people of Pakistan,” she said.

“It is the constitutional right of the people of Pakistan to know what hell the PTI plans to unleash upon them with their incompetence in this deal (with the IMF). It is the parliamentary obligation of the PTI government to answer questions about this deal in the august house before signing a formal agreement. The people of Pakistan deserve to know how much more expensive will electricity, natural gas and other everyday commodities will get. They need to be told how much more the rupee will be devalued,” Ms Aurangzeb said.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2019