ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani met on Monday for the second time in one week to review the strategy to run the parliamentary affairs and possibilities of convening the sessions of the two houses and the meetings of the parliamentary committees amid second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan and Special Assistant to the PM on Political Affairs Malik Aamir Dogar were also present in the meeting.

According to a handout issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the participants expressed satisfaction over the precautionary measures so far adopted at the Parliament House and in the running of the parliamentary affairs.

It says that the participants had decided that a final decision about convening of the sessions of the two houses would be made after consultation with the parliamentary leaders of all the parties in a meeting on Wednesday (tomorrow).

NA speaker has convened a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus Disease today

The Senate Secretariat has cancelled the meetings of all its standing and functional committees for an indefinite period in the wake of coronavirus situation whereas the National Assembly committees have been holding meetings while strictly observing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) already announced by the government to stop the spread of the pandemic.

According to the tentative parliamentary calendar, the 28th regular session of the present National Assembly was scheduled to start on Monday.

The speaker has already convened a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) on Wednesday.

However, the opposition parties are once again weighing the option to boycott the meeting in line with its previous decision to stay away from all meetings to be presided over by Speaker Asad Qaiser due to his alleged biased conduct.

The leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) say that they have decided in principle to stay away from all the parliamentary committees under the speaker, but a final decision about participation in the Wednesday’s meeting on the coronavirus situation will be made after consultation with all the other constituent parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

The PML-N has already announced suspension of all its activities due to the death of the mother of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif in London on Sunday.

On the other hand, a source in the government told Dawn that the speaker would hold the parliamentary committee meeting even if the opposition parties decided to boycott it.

The National Assembly Secretariat has issued an agenda for the meeting of the parliamentary committee which includes “matters relating to the session of the National Assembly due to Covid-19 and briefing on coronavirus disease”.

A spokesman for the National Assembly Secretariat said that National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lt Gen Mohammad Afzal and senior officials of the National Command and Operation Centre had been invited to attend the meeting.

Earlier, the speaker had to cancel the parliamentary leaders’ meeting which he convened on Nov 11 for “a briefing by military officials on the current issues of national security” after all opposition parties decided to stay away from it.

Similarly, the speaker had to cancel a meeting of the parliamentary leaders on Sept 28 which he had convened to discuss elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had himself announced that his party would not become a part of any parliamentary committee under the speaker for his biased conduct during the last joint sitting of parliament on Sept 16.

The opposition parties in their joint declaration issued after the Sept 20 multiparty conference in Islamabad had declared that they would not cooperate with the government inside and outside the parliament.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2020