• In a house of 336, treasury had only 67 members against the required 84
• PTI facing blackout in coverage by official media

ISLAMABAD: The government faced an embarrassing situation in the National Assembly on Thursday when the opposition cleverly blocked the passage of an important money bill in the middle of the process.

It was after facing a 67-32 vote defeat on the motion tabled by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to present the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2024 for its passage that opposition members belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) realised that their absence could prevent the government from maintaining quorum for which the presence of 84 members is required in the 336-member house.

As soon as Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah declared the result of the headcount on the motion, the PTI members strategically walked out, leaving behind their colleague Aamir Dogar to point out lack of quorum at a time when the chair had already got approval of two clauses of the three-clause bill through a voice vote.

The deputy speaker desperately ordered a headcount and then suspended the proceedings till completion of the quorum. The government, however, not only failed to complete the quorum — for which it required the presence of 17 more members — but also could not hold the members already present in the house and thus the number dropped to even less than 67.

When the proceedings resumed after half an hour, the chair found no other option but to announce the adjournment of the sitting till Friday morning (today) without completing the agenda, which included the passage of five bills.

The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2024 is already in the field as the government had introduced it last year in the form of an ordinance.

However, since the ordinance is about to lapse after completing its constitutional period, it has now become mandatory for the government to get it passed from the assembly for continuation of its enforcement. The bill, according to the Statement of Objects and Reasons, is aimed at removing some difficulties faced by taxpayers in the implementation of higher tax rates on income from federal government securities as well as rationalising standard tax rate on whole of the business income of banking companies.

Media blackout

The state-run media, as well as the official social media platforms of the National Assembly, continued the policy of censoring the proceedings of the house with opposition members facing a complete blackout.

Earlier, the National Assembly’s proceedings were not broadcast live on its official social media platforms when the house held a discussion on the Pakistan-India conflict, following the Pahalgam attack.

On May 6, when Leader of Opposition Omar Ayub Khan raised the issue of his speech being censored, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq asserted his authority, saying he had the right to expunge anything deemed “against national interest”.

The proceedings were not live-streamed on the NA’s official YouTube and Facebook channels, while PTV aired speeches from the treasury benches only.

At that time, a senior National Assembly Secretariat official had stated that the live-streaming of parliamentary proceedings had been stopped on social media in view of the sensitivity of the situation between Pakistan and India, adding that the live-stream would resume soon.

Though censorship of “objectionable parts” of opposition lawmakers’ speeches has become something of a norm, a complete blackout of proceedings during debate on an important issue was quite unprecedented.

After completion of the debate on India-Pakistan conflict, the live-streaming of the NA proceedings began on its official YouTube and Facebook channels, but now with complete blackout of the opposition members even during the question hour.

There was no word from the government on the issue. However, a senior official of the NA Secretariat told Dawn that the blackout of opposition members was being done on the directives of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2025