ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday witnessed introduction of 41 private member’s bills amid opposition’s protest when Speaker Asad Qaiser, in an unprecedented move, allowed a mover to introduce 32 bills ‘in one go’.

Led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Dr Nafeesa Shah, the opposition members staged a walkout from the house, leaving behind its member Ali Gohar to point out lack of quorum when the speaker permitted ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s member Syed Fakhar Imam to ‘club all his 32 bills’ on the agenda and move them by ‘simply reading out their serial numbers’ on the agenda.

PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar objected to the speaker’s decision and then Nafeesa Shah blasted the government for what she called bulldozing the private member’s day business and “bringing an insult to the parliament”.

In an unprecedented move, speaker allows introduction of 32 bills ‘in one go without any discussion’

Interestingly, when the speaker announced that all the bills stood introduced, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan said there were few bills which the government wanted to oppose.

However, the speaker, who was in a haste to finish up 155-point heavy agenda that included a total of 55 bills for introduction and another seven for passage, said he (the minister of state) could oppose the bills in the committees.

Naveed Qamar alleged that the government was introducing the bills in the garb of the private member’s bills, which was unprecedented.

The seasoned parliamentarian said he had never seen the practice of clubbing bills in any of the parliament in the world. It was surprising that Mr Imam, who had served as speaker of the assembly, was not objecting to the move, the PPP MNA added.

Speaking on a point of order, Nafeesa Shah said private member’s day was meant for providing an opportunity to opposition members to introduce their bills as the government had the facility of introducing legislations on any day. She regretted that 80 per cent of the total bills on the agenda belonged to the treasury members. She said the incumbent government had been doing “legislation through ordinances” and now it was “bulldosing the legislation process” in the house.

The PPP MNA said the speaker through a “royal decree” had also breached the privilege of the chairmen of the committees by not allowing them to convene meetings (of the panels) on their own.

“We are staging a token walkout to protest over all these un-parliamentary acts,” Dr Shah declared, before leading the walkout, leaving behind Ali Gohar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for pointing out lack of quorum.

Interestingly, when the opposition staged walkout, Mr Imam was presiding over the sitting in the absence of the speaker who had left the house due to some other official engagement.

After a headcount, Mr Imam suspended the proceedings due to lack of quorum.

When the opposition members were going out, the chair gave floor to Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari who criticised the opposition for hampering the proceedings.

“The opposition should be stopped from dictating the government how to run the house,” she said. “We are fed up. Don’t dictate us,” Dr Mazari retorted.

She said presenting private member’s bills was also the right of the treasury members.

In her speech, she also attacked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is the chairman of the assembly’s human rights committee, alleging that he had been “playing politics” on a number of bills related to human rights. She said there were nine important bills that had been pending before the committee because Mr Bhutto-Zardari had blocked their passage.

The opposition returned to the house after about 20 minutes to take part in remaining proceedings.

Under the rules, a mover is required to seek permission to introduce a bill and he or she is allowed to introduce the bill through a vote count, in case it is opposed by the government. The mover is also required to brief the House about salient features of the bill before its introduction.

However, in this case, Fakhar Imam did not even read out titles of the bills, saying almost all the bills were of “similar and technical nature”.

Later, the National Assembly witnessed introduction of eight other bills whereas two bills were rejected when the government opposed them.

Mehboob Shah of the PTI introduced a very important bill seeking an amendment to the Pakistan Penal Code 1860 through which he has sought exclusion of death penalty to those extradited from other countries in criminal cases.

The mover managed to introduce the bill amid the opposition’s noisy protest without any discussion on it.

“The Statement of Objects and Reasons” attached to the bill states “Trans-national organized crimes required collection of evidences from several countries. The available tool of mutual legal assistance does not bear fruit as the request under this arrangement is not entertained on the ground of apprehension regarding award of death penalty.” It is therefore, necessary to amend the PPC 1860 by excluding death penalty.”

The lower house of the parliament will meet again on Wednesday (today) at 11am.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2019