Senate passes ICT LG bill amid opposition protest

ISLAMABAD: The government Friday rushed the controversial Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022 through the Senate amid protest and chants of lack of quorum in the House by the opposition.

The piece of legislation has already been adopted by the National Assembly a day earlier, envisaging increase of the number of union councils from 101 to 125 and enabling direct election of mayor and deputy mayor as joint candidates.

However, it is widely believed that the government has resorted to this step only to delay LG polls in the federal capital. The government requisitioned session was convened on a short notice of less than an hour in the evening, and the sitting was marred by lack of quorum while the opposition challenged the chair’s ruling that the House was in quorum after the head count.

The legislation was enacted with the LG elections due in the federal capital on December 31 and the amendment bill was not referred to the House standing committee concerned, being a standard practice.

The items were listed on the requisition application: to discuss the situation arising out of recent wave of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with overall law and order situation in the country, which was not taken up at all, and the only business transacted by the Senate was the speedy introduction and passage of the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Amendment Bill brought through supplementary agenda.

Telling Leader of Opposition Dr Shahzad Waseem that it was a requisitioned session, Senate chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani asked Minister of State for law Shahadat Awan to move the bill providing for increasing the number of union councils from 101 to 125 and direct elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

However, Leader of the Opposition kept on speaking and raised objection to the way the Senate was summoned regretting that even members were not informed. He asked what the urgency was to summon the session while asking for halting the practice of ambushing the parliament.

The chair informed the opposition that the House has been summoned on a requisition of treasury benches and meanwhile, PTI senators started a noisy protest and gathered around the chair’s dais, chanting slogans against the government. They tore apart the copies of the agenda. The security staff of the Senate Secretariat lined up between the treasury and the opposition benches to avoid any untoward situation. The opposition legislators could be heard raising slogans like ‘Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) ran away and ‘don’t run away from elections’.

They also raised the issue of quorum. Sanjrani told them to go back to their seats and only then they can point out the quorum.

The opposition members raised the quorum issue while majority of the PTI members had made exit from the House and it was found that 22 senators were present at that time, prompting the chair to ask for ringing of bells for three minutes. The chair declared the House in order, saying 24 members are present.

Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman, speaking on the occasion, explained that the session was requisitioned to discuss the situation arising out of the recent wave of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with overall law and order situation in the country, requesting the chair to take up government bills as well.

The chair at first said that the bills could not be taken up in the requisitioned session in the light of a ruling and a standing order of a former chairman Senate. However, Senator Sherry challenged his claim and quoted the ruling of ex-chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, given in February 2016, saying that the government business could also be transacted in such a session, though the agenda of the requisition should be given priority.

To this, Sanjrani ruled that this should not be made a practice in future and asked the government to move the ICT Local Government Amendment Bill, which was passed by 24 votes to 12 opposition members.

After the passage of the bill, the chair asked the opposition members whether they wanted to discuss the motion on the law and order situation of the country but no one responded amid the protest and slogans.

Senator Sherry again rose claiming the opposition PTI was not interested in discussing the growing terrorism in the country despite terrorist incidents were on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it is the ruling party, alleging that their agenda was to destabilise Pakistan.

“They (PTI) are least bothered whether Pakistan falls or burns and it must be seen as to who is conspiring against Pakistan and who is steering it out of problems,” she maintained. She asked PTI leadership to have some retrospection. While the PTI members continued protest, the chair prorogued the session.