ISLAMABAD: The last session of the third parliamentary year of the sitting National Assembly was prorogued on Thursday after passing a motion, expressing its gratitude to the president of Pakistan for addressing the joint sitting of the parliament on Aug 20, last year.
The National Assembly had been in session since July 30 after Eid ul Azha break, only to complete 130 mandatory days in a parliamentary year. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentarian Dr Nafeesa Shah, raising a question of privilege, regretted that the FIA was being used for political victimisation of the government opponents.
She said she, along with five other party MNAs and three Sindh ministers, came to know only on television channels that they had been served notices by the FIA on charges of bringing into disrepute the superior judiciary. She said later they came to know that the notices under Pakistan Cyber Crimes Act, 2016 had been sent on whatsapp numbers. She said she, along with other colleagues, was booked under the Cyber Crimes Act as one of their party workers uttered derogatory remarks for the superior judiciary and sent video of the same to them on whatsapp numbers.
PPP parliamentarian Syed Naveed Qamar said the debate on presidential address remained on every day’s agenda the whole parliamentary year only to prevent taking up adjournment motions of the opposition members. He also objected that the motion to express gratitude to the president for addressing the joint sitting of the parliament was passed without winding up speech by any of the ministers on the debate. Towards end of the parliamentary year, the proceedings averted lack of quorum when the aviation minister was laying before the National Assembly the Pakistan Civil Aviation Ordinance, 2021 (Ordinance No Xlll of 2077) as required by clause (2) of Article 89 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian Murtaza Javed Abbasi asked the deputy speaker to withdraw laying of ordinance, as an opposition member was raising question of lack of quorum. “You should withdraw extension in ordinance which was done when a member was pointing out lack of quorum,” he said. The deputy speaker ordered for counting of members present in the House, but Murtaza Javed Abbasi took the floor.
Abbasi, speaking on a point of order, said the UAE authorities had asked the Pakistan government to make arrangements for rapid PCR COVID-19 test within 10 days, but nothing had been done despite passage of nine days. The aviation minister could not give any satisfactory response except for saying that directives had been issued to do the needful, and the authorised laboratories were making required arrangements at Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar international airports. The National Assembly was informed that cash assistance was being provided to millions of deserving families under Ehsaas programme in the most transparent manner. Advisor on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan told the House during Question Hour that hundreds of thousands of people, who were not entitled to the assistance, have been removed from the social sector programme.
The advisor told the House that 3,049 jobs were provided to people belonging to Balochistan in different government departments over the last three years. He said the Balochistan and Sindh governments will be asked to identify the employees who got jobs in the federal departments on fake domiciles. He promised that action would be taken against those employees with the cooperation of provinces.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan told the House that Pakistan Television (PTV) was gradually coming out of its losses. He said losses had been reduced from Rs11 billion to Rs9 billion. He said the PTV was the pride of the nation and had been converted into HD technology. He said the PTV no longer lags behind the private channels in terms of technology. Parliamentary Secretary for Education Wajiha Akram said several initiatives were being taken in the education sector including its integration with the latest technology. Responding to a calling attention notice, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said no television fee was charged from worship places including mosques and religious seminaries. He said if any worship place was paying the television fee, it should contact Pakistan Television (PTV) for its exclusion from electricity bills. The state minister said that sufficient funds had been allocated in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for solarisation of mosques. He said solarisation of mosques would also be carried out in Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
