Govt, Opposition agree on NA code of conduct

ISLAMABAD: Fed up with slanging matches and use of unparliamentary language in the National Assembly to the disappointment of the nation, the government and opposition Thursday agreed that there should be a code of conduct for the members.

The House resumed its session with Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri in the chair.

Defense Minister Pervez Khattak suggested that Parliament should be run without indulging in character-assassination of political opponents.

He said chaos and commotion in Parliament conveyed an extremely negative image of parliamentarians to the nation and international community. Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif agreed to Khattak and said a decent and appropriate language should be used in Parliament to keep its sanctity. Continuing, Shahbaz said some parliamentarians were habituated to dishing dirt at the fellow opposition leaders and member without a cogent reason. He said the parliamentarians’ abusive language had disappointed the nation.

“For the past few days, we have turned this august house into a fish market. This trend must come to an end now,” he said. He said all the members ought to use parliamentary language and their stances must be supported by facts.

“Let’s we talk on all important national issues in a parliamentary, democratic way; let’s not disappoint the nation,” he said. PPP leader and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf also supported the proposal for devising a code of conduct for parliamentarians and assured his party’s support to the government in this regard.

Taking part in a discussion on the national economy, PML-N senior leader Ahsan Iqbal advised the government to recognise successes of the past government, adopt realistic policies and stop political victimisation of opponents if it wanted to take the country’s economy forward. He called for a transparent accountability so that none of the government officers would feel scared while making decisions.

“Today, the government officers hesitate to take decision even in the country’s interests because they fear arrest,” Ahsan said, pointing out that there was status-quo in the country’s politics. He said if the government and its managers tried to make successes of the last government as doubtful then it would affect the market’s sentiments that would reduce the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). “The more worrying thing than increase in burden of foreign debt is reduction in FDI which is needed to be arrested,” he said, adding that FDI was on the rise but started reducing due to political crisis in the country during last one year’s tenure of the PML-N government.

He said the PTI government should have the courage to recognise successes of their government and take its policies forward. “In the joint communique reached with China during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit, the Pakistan government has admitted that CPEC is a successful project,” he said.

Criticising the ‘Apna Ghar’ housing scheme, he said the government had made no allocations in the budget for the project. He further said in order to give two million jobs, there was need to keep economic growth rate between 6 and 8 percent.

He pointed out that the PML-N government had inherited 3% GDP growth rate which was increased to 5.8% in five years. Syed Naveed Qamar of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said the finance minister could not satisfying people by just saying that the issue of current account deficit and balance of payment had been resolved after receiving $3 billion as the amount was unusable for the government.

He also asked the government to move for resources mobilization and revenue generation to meet expenses.

The PPP Parliamentarians (PPPP) observed that the government had slowed down economic growth due to increasing inflation and increase in interest rate observing that inflation rate was likely to reach double figures by end of ongoing fiscal year.

Talking about Pakistan’s offer of mediation to Yemen, he said the Arab countries and Israel were getting closer to each other and Iran was being encircled.

He asked if Pakistan had also succumbed to pressure in this situation.

“Pakistan should not move for any long term destabilisation in the present situation,” he opined.

Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood said Pakistan would now get the IMF programme on better terms and conditions and pointed out that the issue of current account deficit had also been resolved.

Shafqat said $3 billion pledged by Saudi Arabia was a reflection of confidence Prime Minister Imran Khan’s policies.

He said the PTI government had inherited many financial challenges when it came to power; however, it explored many options, including seeking help from friendly countries and delaying the decision to go to IMF.

The visits of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia and China were very successful, he said.

He said governor State Bank of Pakistan along with a delegation will visit China on Friday to discuss the details on the points agreed during the prime minister’s visit.

Shafqat said they were making efforts to enhance the country’s revenue base and reduce expenditures.

The austerity drive launched by the government in public sector is a step in this direction.

The minister said the housing programme launched by the government will boost economy and economic activities.

He said the government and opposition could together take the country out of crises saying a charter of economy could be signed to keep a positive trajectory.