NA Secretariat rejects Omar Ayub’s allegations against Ayaz Sadiq

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Secretariat Wednesday rejected the allegations levelled by the Opposition Leader Omar Ayub against Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq concerning questions and calling attention notices of public importance.

In a statement, the NA Secretariat spokesperson clarified that they keep complete record of submission of questions and calling attention notices by the opposition leader, their responses, and all subsequent proceedings. Furthermore, the spokesperson said, the secretariat had already issued a comprehensive response to the opposition leader, providing detailed data on the question hours and calling attention notices raised during the parliamentary sessions.

Further, the records of rejected questions and calling attention notices —along with the reasons for their rejection — have also been made public for the sake of transparency.

As per record, 320 questions submitted by the treasury benches members were not allowed due to non-compliance with the parliamentary rules, while 127 questions from the opposition members also did not fulfill the criteria laid down in the Rules of Procedure.

On several occasions, questions from the opposition could not be taken up due to their absence from the House during protests.

Furthermore, from the 2nd to the 14th parliamentary sessions, Omar Ayub submitted 36 questions of which 16 were selected through ballot. Owing to the opposition leader’s absence and protest during proceedings of the House, six questions lapsed, four were responded to, and six were rejected on the grounds of procedural non-compliance.

It was also made clear that Omar Ayub submitted seven calling attention notices of which two were presented before the House and discussed, while five lapsed. Overall, the opposition submitted 283 calling attention notices of which 47 were brought before the House and 26 were discussed.