Delay in Shahbaz’s production

ISLAMABAD: Members from the opposition benches staged walk-out from the National Assembly (NA) as protest against delay in production of the opposition leader Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif at the start of the session on Monday.

PML-N parliamentarian Rana Tanveer Hussain raised the point that Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif was not produced in the House by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) despite issuance of his production orders by the Speaker. “You are custodian of the House and it is your responsibility to ensure presence of the opposition leader in the House,” he said.

Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari entered the House together in a pleasant mood and with smiling faces at the end of boycott by their parties and they were welcomed with thumbing desks. Earlier, on his arrival at the Parliament House, Shahbaz Sharif told newsmen that the official of NAB did not want to bring him to Islamabad under one pretext or other. “Sometime, they said the plane is not available and sometime they tried to use other excuses,” he said adding they agreed to bring him here when he pressed. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the opposition should behave responsibly because boycott of the NA session is no service to democracy. He said the opposition should present its stance in parliament and also take part in the proceedings, respecting the democratic norm. “The Speaker had issued production order of the opposition leader for the last session,” he said.

Earlier, the situation in the House went out of control of Speaker Asad Qaisar when a calling attention on non-availability of portable water in the country consumed nearly two hours of proceedings as the opposition members and ministers continued to exchange allegations for water shortage in Islamabad and elsewhere in the country. Interestingly, the calling attention notice was moved by members from the treasury benches including Saifur Rehman, Syma Nadeem, Muhammad Aslam Khan and Attaullah Khan who accused the PPP which has been in Sindh government for the last 10 years. “This is issue of human rights which is being violated by the Sindh government,” Attaullah Khan said. He said the ministers of the Sindh government were also involved in selling of water through tankers and illegal means. The PPP parliamentarians Syed Naveed Qamar and Shahzia Marri said that water was provincial issue and discussion on it in the NA was against the constitution saying if the government was serious in addressing water issues in Karachi, it should release funds for those projects.

Shazia Marri stressed that the federal government should ensure 1991 water accord saying that three-tier formula was violation of the accord. “The Sindh province accepted the 1991 water accord but the same was also not been implemented in letter and spirit,” she said. PML-N member Ahsan Iqbal said the Minister for Planning and Development was talking against facts saying the incumbent government had scraped five water projects for Islamabad including conduction of water from Ghazi Brotha for Islamabad and Rawalpindi, irrigation water scheme for rural areas and rainwater harvesting project and treatment of Korang nullah water for the federal capital. He said the PML-N government for the first time in the history of Pakistan announced national water policy in April, 2018. Speaking on the water issue, Minister for Planning Khurso Bakhtiar said the government would allocate 10% percent of Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) or more for water-related projects and policies were also being made for provision of water in urban centers and desalination of the sea water.

The Minister said dams need to be constructed in Fata and Balochistan to meet water requirement in those areas. He rejected an allegation regarding dropping of water schemes from PSDP saying they were rationalising water schemes announced by the PML-N government for Islamabad in view of the availability of funds.

He said the PML-N government announced water schemes of 2000 billion rupees while allocated Rs50 billion under the PSDP. Responding to a Calling Attention Notice, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan told the House that the federal government had formed a task force under the Sindh governor to address water scarcity and other important issues in Karachi.

He said the federal government wants to resolve this issue with the cooperation of the provincial government. Ali Muhammad Khan said water supply is a devolved subject under the 18th amendment; however, the federal government is very much concerned over it and will extend full support to the provinces in this regard. He said provincial government should take action against the tanker mafia in Karachi. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said water is a national issue and a national approach should be adopted to address it.

He said the federal government and the provincial governments need to collaborate and take steps to ensure that every citizen of the country has clean drinking water. Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari took strong exception to assertion of PPP members when they said that water was a provincial matter and should not be discussed in the National Assembly. “This is issue of human rights and not a provincial matter,” she said adding that it was also a national issue which was not given due attention in the past. Speaker Asad Qaisar agreed with suggestions of parliamentarian that the House should hold exclusive debate on the serious issue like water shortage in various parts of the country.