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ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: A boycott by the entire Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the speaker’s anger at absent ministers hit a poorly-attended National Assembly session on Wednesday before the government agreed to a law and order debate on Monday.
The house also took up the first legislative business of its last parliamentary year on the second day of the present session but last-minute opposition objections and a lack of quorum blocked the passage of a long-delayed key media bill aimed mainly to allow newspaper owners to run private television channels.
None of 64 MMA members turned up when the house met on Wednesday morning after Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, the largest group in the alliance of six religious parties, decided to follow suit after second largest Jamaat-i-Islami and junior partner Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan began a boycott on Tuesday to protest against last November’s parliamentary passage of a women’s rights law.
The JUI move came hours before an MMA leadership meeting in Lahore decided to boycott the National Assembly until Jan 13, when a meeting of the alliance’s larger general council is to decide whether to carry out or revoke an earlier threat to resign from the house over the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act.
The Act seeks to protect women from the widely complained misuse of two Islamic Hudood ordinances forming a rape law enforced in 1979 by then military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq, but is regarded un-Islamic by the MMA.
SPEAKER’S SCORN: Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain poured an unusual scorn on absent cabinet members at the start of the day’s proceedings during the question hour when no minister concerned was present to reply to members’ queries about the first two questions on the day’s agenda, provoking him to adjourn the house for over half an hour until some ministers came to the chamber.
“This is height of irresponsibility,” he said and, using a mix of English and Urdu, asked: “How work will proceed?”
The speaker’s harshest strictures to-date against ministers that the opposition has been accusing him of bailing out in the past, came after an opposition member complained about the absence of both Environment Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat and Minister of State Malik Amin Aslam.
“Governments are not run in this way. The ministers should assign somebody (to answer questions on their behalf),” Mr Hussain said, asking for an advice from PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who said at least parliamentary secretaries of the ministries concerned should be present.
“Neither any parliamentary secretary nor any minister comes (to the house),” the speaker said, and asked: “Don’t ministers consider themselves answerable?”
The speaker seemed to have run out his patience when he found nobody to answer queries even about the second question, which related to the petroleum ministry. He just rose from his seat and adjourned the house saying: “We will come back when the ministers come.”
The question hour was resumed after about 35 minutes when several ministers came to the house, which then faced a walkout by journalists from the press gallery to protest against some unprecedented curbs imposed the previous day on their movement in the parliament building. The walkout ended after the authorities revoked a ban on journalists’ entry to the parliament cafeteria and access to ministers’ chambers while the question of allowing private television channels to bring cameras to the premises remained to be settled.
The speaker later had a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz along with the PML president, some ministers and ruling party members where, according to an official press release, the “overall legislative agenda” of the house was discussed.
But the release did not say if the issue of ministers’ presence was discussed.
FLAK FOR GOVT: The government’s handling of the law and order situation came under sharp criticism before agreeing, on a move from PPP chief whip Khurshid Ahmad Shah, to have a full debate on the issue on Monday, three days after an opposition-called Senate session is due to hold a similar debate.
PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan said the government had not only failed to fight terrorism but followed policies that actually encouraged the trend, and demanded formation of a house committee to oversee the investigation of a gunman’s attack at Islamabad airport on Tuesday so nobody could erase “footprints” leading to the source of the incident by possible disappearance or elimination of the suspected accomplices of attacker, who police say was killed by his own hand-grenade.
Tehmina Daultana of the PML-N, who earlier raised the issue of the airport attack, said a “wrong planning of the government and a military general” was making the country unsafe.
PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called for caution in handling security, saying the country had already become a security state but “should not be made a Gestapo state”.
Minister of State for Interior Zafar Iqbal Warraich assured the house that an honest investigation would be held about the airport attack and terrorists would be shown no leniency.
PEMRA BILL: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, as agreed by a mediation committee of both houses of parliament, had appeared certain to be passed immediately before PPP’s Zafar Ali Shah sought its deferment for at least two days, saying he wanted to move some amendments but was caught unawares by the bill’s presence on the day’s agenda.
Aitzaz Ahsan also complained that “some documents” that should have accompanied the bill were missing.
While the parliamentary affairs minister pressed for an immediate passage of the bill, PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf rose to complain about the lack of quorum in the house.
But before taking notice of the complaint, the speaker said he had a way-out and asked house members to move any amendments they might have for all the seven bills put on the day’s agenda, before adjourning the house until 9am on Thursday.
It was not clear whether the Pemra bill, already passed by the Senate in the present shape after shuttling between the two houses since it was first tabled in the National Assembly in October 2004, would be taken up on Thursday.
Mr Niazi said the bill had already been delayed a lot although he would welcome a further discussion despite a consensus reached in the mediation committee that he headed after consulting all stakeholders.
