Opposition walks out of NA over live telecast issue

Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Exchange of hot words between the opposition and cabinet members and token walkout of the combined opposition over the issue of live telecast of their speeches marred proceedings of the budget debate in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The issue of not telecasting the speeches of the parliamentarians live on the state-owned PTV culminated into allegations and counter allegations between the PML-N and PTI with regard to attack on PTV last year during dharna days.
Even Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid proposed formation of a parliamentary commission headed by leader of the opposition and minus treasury benches to determine whether or not the PTI stormed the Parliament and the PTV during their sit-ins in Islamabad last year. However, Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah did not respond to the proposal.
The House remained hostage to the issue of live coverage of the budget speeches for approximately 40 minutes in the afternoon’s proceedings and the debate was resumed after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar intervened and appealed for resuming the debate.
Even Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq also warned the legislators from both sides saying that the time which was consumed on the issue of live coverage will be deducted equally from both sides of the isle.
At the outset of afternoon session, member from treasury benches Owais Leghari on a point of order blasted the state-owned television for not giving live coverage of the budget speeches of the parliamentarians, saying that it was clear violation of commitment. “The commitment was made for live coverage of the budget speeches but they had only gave live coverage to Khursheed Shah, while other members of the House were ignored. He said there should be no pick and choose policy when they had made a commitment.
Leghari who availed point of order during the speech of member from treasury benches Raza Hayat Hiraj and said the PTV should be asked on the violation.He said who gives the power to PTV MD to pick and choose for telecasting of the budget debate as all the members of the House were equal. “The MD PTV should be summoned in the speaker’s chamber and be asked for not telecasting the live coverage of the budget debate,” he added.
Raza Hayat Hiraj, the PML-N legislator, said the House should be told about those who were not accepting the power of the Parliament. “The government is answerable before the Parliament,” he added.
Khursheed Shah said it was a parliamentary tradition that the commitments which were made in the Parliament were always honoured. “I am not fond of the coming on channels but wanted that the debate should be telecast for the people,” he said, and added that if the live coverage of the budget speeches was telecast in the TV then it will be beneficial not only for the government but also for the Parliament as the people could judge the performance of their representatives.
Following the point of order, the opposition led by Khursheed Shah staged a token walkout from the House. During the opposition walkout, the deputy speaker gave the floor to member from treasury benches Rao Ajmal to deliver his speech on budget but he refused to do so, saying that unless commitment was not made for the coverage of the budget speeches he would not take part in the debate. He said he don’t care if floor was not given to him again.
On the demand of legislators to summon Pervaiz Rashid into the House, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi sent Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada to bring him.
Pervaiz Rashid said as per demand of the opposition he made commitment in the House on Monday that PTV would make live feed available for all channels and this is being done religiously. He said it is up to television channels to pick up the speeches.
As for PTV, he said, like other channels it too has other commitments and therefore, it was not possible to telecast live all the speeches for hours at the cost of its revenues. He said speeches of parliamentary leaders are being telecast live and a programme in the evening covers speeches of other members.
The information minister said he was ready to sit with the opposition leader to formulate a strategy for future which is practicable. On this, Khursheed Shah said the PTV is a state institution and it is a need of hour hat the people should judge the performance of representatives.
Pervaiz Rashid said the PTV is running commercially and the government did not give a single penny and it covers all its expenses from advertisements.
He said if the Parliament wanted to purchase a time from the PTV for the live telecast of the speeches then he was ready to negotiate with the PTV management.Speaking on a point of order, the MQM parliamentary leader Abdul Rashid Godil said the PTV is only for praising the government of the day. He said the opposition raised the issue after the treasury members also spoke on the issue.
Pervaiz Rashid said PTV was giving equal coverage to all the political parties and showed the admirers of the MQM leaders, PPP leader and PTI leaders. “The PTV also giving time to those who attacked the PTV and even took the cameras,” he said. Pervaiz Rashid said the PTV was giving coverage to all the political parties and even no talk show was complete when there was no representation from the opposition parties. He said the PTI should not seek justice from others but should give it to others.
The PTI legislator Dr Arif Alvi said the PTI was not involved in the attack on PTV. Pervaiz Rashid again stood up to reply Arif Alvi and proposed that a parliamentary commission headed by leader of the opposition and minus treasury benches should be formed to determine whether or not the PTI stormed the Parliament and PTV during their sit-ins in Islamabad last year.
Ishaq Dar then took the floor and urged the members to focus on the budget as he was looking forward to get positive input from members to improve budgetary proposals for the next year.
Earlier in the morning session, the point of order of PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi regarding live telecast of the NA proceedings led to exchange of harsh words with Minister for Defence Production Rana Ranvir Hussain. The minister said he very well knew the elders of Shah Mehmood. The PTI lawmaker said they would not allow to run proceedings in this way.
Shaikh Rashid Ahmad also objected that the private channels were not fed to show live speeches of the opposition members. The situation forced the speaker to suspend proceedings for 15 minutes.
The speaker while addressing the minister for defence production said he was not expecting such behaviour from him. On that Rana Tanvir apologised for using words against the opposition members.
Khursheed warned the ministers to use soft tone otherwise it would be difficult for the government to run the budget session. “It is not proper to talk against elders of any member and hurt their feelings,” the opposition leader said.
Khursheed said the opposition so far had been demonstrating positive attitude but the language being used by some ministers was condemnable.Pervaiz Rashid told the House that the PTV has been feeding private channels for live telecast. He said proofs of live transmissions will also be provided to parliamentary leaders of all the parties.
Meanwhile, the opposition members rejected budget proposals for the financial year 2015-2016 saying the government had failed give any relief.Members from opposition benches, however, appreciated vital China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) project calling for transparent execution of the plan within the stipulated time.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif also attended Wednesday’s proceeding for half an hour and heard and proposals forwarded by the opposition benches.
Initiating debate on the federal budget proposals, Shaikh Rashid said it was not a revolutionary budget at all and the government had failed in providing relief to the common man. The opposition member also expressed doubts over budgetary figures as provided by the finance minister regarding growth of the national economy. He demanded the government to complete project Lei Expressway and 410-bed hospital in Rawalpindi which were started by him.
Sahibzada Tariqullah of the JI said the government had failed in meeting its targets on the economic front. He also demanded the government to take immediate steps for promotion of Islamic banking in the country and get rid of interest-based system.
Awais Leghari of the PML-N said the national economy was moving in the right direction and risk factor in it had been minimised. Leghari said due to prudent policies of the government, GDP growth has increased, per capita income has gone up from 1,380 dollars to 1,512 dollars and inflation has come down to four 4.6 percent.
Leghari pointed out that it was the success of Pakistan’s foreign policy that it had signed agreements and MoUs worth of 45 billion dollars with China and have good relations with GCC, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and EU countries.
He said it was matter of pride that civil and military leadership has taken a consensus decision to launch operation against terrorism as a result of which law and order situation has improved in the country.
Ghulam Ahmed Bilour urged the government to focus on hydel power generation to overcome electricity shortage in the country.