ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Mon­day cautioned lawmakers to address people’s problems otherwise democracy might be derailed in the country.

Speaking on the floor of the Natio­nal Assembly, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader urged members of the lower house both from treasury and opposition benches not to waste time hurling accusations at each other and instead concentrate on resolving people’s problems.

“If you do not run the house in a justifiable manner and fail to address the problems of the masses, there will be an announcement that ‘we are here’ to serve the people. Then after a decade someone else will again bring democracy in the country,” Mr Abbasi said.

“We cannot resolve people’s problems with closed eyes. We do not want point scoring but resolution of people’s problems,” he said, adding that no legislation had taken place since the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) came into power.

An ordinance related to Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and a bill regarding Heavy Industries Taxila were passed by the house

Questioning the role of speaker and deputy speaker, Mr Abbasi said that government ministers had been allowed to speak on the floor of the house for more than an hour in which they only accused opposition and did not debate productively.

On this, deputy speaker Qasim Suri said that he and the speaker would try their best to follow the agenda of the house and would not take point of orders till the end of the agenda.

The deputy speaker expressed the hope that government members would ensure their presence in the house to answer the questions of opposition members.

Earlier, an ordinance and a bill related to Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT), respectively, were passed by the house.

The opposition opposed the pass­age of the PMDC Ordinance, 2019, and insisted that making such legislation through the ordinance when the session of the National Assembly was in progress was an insult to parliament.

Shazia Marri of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said that her party rejected any legislation through ordinance. She said her party had submitted a resolution that no legislation should be made through ordinances.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahnawaz Ranjha of PML-N said that making legislation through presidential ordinance was against rules of business of the parliament and democratic norms.

Parliamentary secretary on health Dr Nausheen Hamid said the ordinance had been issued as no standing committee of the NA was in place and it had to be issued to save the future of medical students.

Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said now the standing committees had been formed and, therefore, the ordinance should referred to the relevant committees instead of passing them.

Sacking of State Life employees

The opposition also raised the issue of the sacking of 22,000 employees of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLICP) and accused the government of not fulfilling its promise of creating 10 million jobs in the country and instead it was creating joblessness.

On this, parliamentary secretary on commerce Shandana Gulzar Khan said that only a cadre of sales officers had been abolished in SLICP and those who were working as sales officers had been allowed to join the upper cadre or the lower one with more incentives.

PPP members Ms Marri, Naveed Qamar, Mr Ashraf and Abdul Qadir Patel disagreed with the reply of Ms Khan and said the matter should be sent to the relevant standing committee for a detailed discussion.

Earlier, members of PML-N staged a protest and came to the speaker’s dais for not allowing Mr Abbasi to complete his speech in response to remarks of Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

They ended their protest when Speaker Asad Qaiser held out an assurance to them to give more time to Mr Abbasi for speaking on the floor of the house.

Mr Sarwar had criticised Mr Abbasi and asked how the state-run Pakistan International Airlines was facing heavy losses while his (Abbasi’s) own airline Air Blue was earning profits. He claimed that both PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills were ruined over the last 10 years.'

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2019