ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: Minister of State for Defence Sardar Khalid Ahmed Khan Lund on Wednesday invited the wrath of the opposition members when he himself asked the Senate chairman to defer a question relating to his ministry after admitting that he had come to the session without doing homework.
“Please, defer the question because I am coming straight to the Senate as I had a very important job to do,” Mr Lund said when he failed to respond to a supplementary question of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed relating to some discrepancies in the written answer to a question about the allocations made in the budget for the ministry of defence.
The minister brought more humiliation for the government when he stated that he had even not attended the meeting of the federal cabinet earlier in the day due to the urgent nature of the job.
This straightforward reply from the minister caused a rumpus in the house when the opposition senators demanded of Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro of issuing strictures against the minister for coming to the session without getting a briefing from the ministry officials on questions.
Opposition Leader Raza Rabbani urged the chairman to ask the minister to tell the house that what urgent nature of work he was doing which was more important than the cabinet meeting and the Senate session. He said if the minister had not attended the crucial cabinet meeting at a time when the ruling coalition was in tatters, then it was upto the prime minister to inquire from the minister. However, he said, the Senate could not be taken as a ride and it was the responsibility of the chairman to take notice of the situation and issue strictures. Actually, he said, this showed the attitude problem of the treasury members.
Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan tried to rescue the state minister and attempted to give a reply to the question, but the opposition senators refused to listen to him and shouted at him forcing him to take his seat.
Asfandyar Wali of the Awami National Party (ANP) said that the state minister had himself stood up to answer the question, therefore, he should be held responsible for what he did. He termed it minister’s “outright incompetency.”
Interestingly, during the whole discussion, Mr Lund did not try to speak again and remained seated. It may be mentioned that Mr Lund was made the state minister for defence in the recent reshuffling of the cabinet after he joined the ruling Pakistan Muslims League (PML) after quitting the PPP-Patriots. Earlier, he had been elected on the ticket of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) but then joined the Patriots group.
Senate chairman did not pass any strictures against the minister saying: “This discussion is enough to give the message to the concerned minister.”