Govt may have to call joint session to pass PIA bill

ISLAMABAD: While a crisis created by the crippling protest of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) employees has been successfully tided over, the government still faces a great challenge to push through its bid in the Senate to improve financial condition of the national flag carrier by involving a strategic investor.

The opposition-dominated Upper House is in no mood to support the government initiative and has pronounced its disapproval to it. If the move was ultimately spurned by the Senate, the government will explore other options to enforce its agenda.

“Then, we will be left with no option but to put the proposed legislation for conversion of the PIA into a company before a joint sitting of Parliament,” an informed cabinet source told ‘The News’.

But before exercising this constitutional right, he said, the government would engage in talks with the opposition parties in the Senate to unanimously pass the law in the Upper House so that the PIA no more remains in the red.

The source said the government’s plan was unambiguous as it wanted to bring in the strategic investor and that’s why it had not succumbed to the PIA workers’ prolonged protest.

The government obviously feels reassured and is poised to move forward its privatisation plan after it overcame the difficult situation created by the strikers. When the government did not accept any major demand of the Joint Action Commission during the protest, it is absolutely unlikely to budge from its stand after the agitation was wrapped up. The government is no longer under any pressure from the PIA workers.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made it clear to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who held talks with the JAC representatives after the protest was wound up, that no demand that could create hurdles in the implementation of the government’s agenda should be agreed.

The opposition parties in the Senate have stressed that the PIA’s financial health should be improved through different measures.

One proposal they have given is that the airline should be given a bailout package while another was that the workers should be offered a golden handshake to make the carrier shed its extra load.

Reckoning the numerical scenario in the National Assembly and Senate, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its allies will be in a comfortable position in the joint session. The deficiency they face in the Upper House can not only be met by their impressive strength in the National Assembly, but they also exceed what they actually need - minimum support of 224 MPs - if all the 342 members of the National Assembly and 104 senators attend the joint sitting.

Even less than this number, 224, may also suffice as not all the MPs generally show up in such sessions. A simple majority of the MPs present and voting in the joint sitting will be required to approve a law.

Under Clause 4 of Article 70, if a bill transmitted to a House is rejected or is not passed within ninety days of its laying or a bill sent again to a House with amendments is not passed by it with such changes, it, at the request of the House in which it originated, shall be considered in a joint sitting, and if passed by the votes of the majority of the members present and voting in the joint session it shall be presented to the president for assent.

The bill to convert the PIA into a company was recently passed by the National Assembly amid the opposition’s protest. Now, the Senate will take it up, and it is clear that it is unwilling to approve it. If it rejected or cleared with amendments that were not acceptable to the National Assembly, the government will invoke this article and summon the joint sitting for its consideration.

The provision also says that a bill may originate in either House and shall, if it is passed where it originated, it will be transmitted to the other chamber; and, if it is passed without amendment by the other House also, it shall be presented to the president for assent. If a bill transmitted to a House by the other is passed with amendments it shall be sent back to the House in which it originated and if that House passes it with those amendments it shall be presented to the president for assent.