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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Sanjrani, Fawad come face- to-face

The minister continued to breach privilege of the Senate as well the chair, trampling the parliamentary traditions.

By Mumtaz Alvi
November 16, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani, on Thursday barred Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry from attending the ongoing session of the Upper House over his failure to tender an apology to the House regarding his remarks against certain opposition leaders a day earlier.

The chair provided fair time to the minister to come to the House and tender an apology. However, he could not turn up. Sanjrani had issued the ruling after the Senate remained suspended for more than 30 minutes that Fawad would have to apologise or he would be barred from the remaining sittings of the current session.

Right from the beginning, the joint opposition announced not to sit in the House until the minister tendered an apology over his use of non-parliamentary language against the opposition leadership. Owing to this situation, the Question-hour was also not held.

Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo of the National Party, PPP’s Sherry Rehman, Maula Bakhsh Chandio and Senator Sitara Ayaz of the National Party rose to grill the minister, who was not present in the House, and alleged that he deliberately wanted to spoil the environment in the Senate.

They charged that what happened Wednesday was not the first time, as it had been happening already, as the minister continued to breach privilege of the Senate as well the chair, trampling the parliamentary traditions. They warned of boycotting the House proceedings and even threatened to hold sessions outside, if the minister did not apologise and held out a categorical assurance not to repeat such conduct in future.

“The minister has been showing arrogance and disrespecting the chair as well as ridiculing the senators. We shall not let this trend continue,” they made it clear and maintained that never in the past the two Houses of the Parliament were disrespected this way.

Leader of the House Shibli Faraz suggested that the record of Fawad and Senator Mushahidullah Khan's statements might be analysed by a committee, and offered an apology on his behalf. But the opposition rejected it and insisted that they were no more prepared to accept Shibli Faraz’s apology and said they all had the consensus that the House should be run smoothly.

Subsequently, the opposition senators staged a walkout, exposing the House to lack of quorum. Senator Mir Kabeer pointed out the quorum issue and the chair asked for ringing of the bells for five minutes. However, the House was not in quorum even after that. As a result, Sanjrani suspended the proceedings for 30 minutes to chair negotiations between the government and opposition.

After about 40 minutes, Sanjrani returned to the House as well as the treasury and opposition senators to read out his ruling in Urdu. He said that the Senate, being the House of the Federation, had been the torch-bearer of great traditions but for some time, there had been unwanted scenes in the House.

He insisted that it was incumbent upon all to avoid such statements and conduct. Sanjrani said that more responsibility lied on the government in running the House smoothly and both the treasury and opposition benches needed to contribute to this.

The Senate chairman said that no senator should use such words or make gestures during the proceedings while having mike or otherwise that might cause a breach of privilege of the House and hurt someone’s feelings. Senators welcomed his ruling and hoped this would help ensure sanity in the House.

After his ruling, he gave the floor to Bizenjo, who claimed that a group from day one wanted to spoil the environment in the parliament and some people had been speaking ill against the parliament even before that. He said it was unfortunate that the ministers were disregarding the legislature. He made it clear that there would be no ifs and buts, and the minister would have to apologise and such conduct would not be tolerated in future.

Senator Usman Kakar of the PkMAP said that through such incidents, an effort was being made to show to public that politicians and lawmakers were after one another instead of focusing on their issues. Referring to the conduct of Fawad, he said such attitudes were worse after the martial laws.

Senator Sherry Rehman welcomed the decision by the chair and appreciated the leader of opposition, leader of the house, parliamentary leaders and senators in this context. Meanwhile, Minister for Defence Pervaiz Khattak met Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and conveyed to him a message from Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The meeting between the two took place here at the Parliament House on the heels of a decision by Sanjrani to bar Fawad Chaudhry from attending the current Senate session. A statement issued by the Senate Secretariat said that Sanjrani and Khattak exchanged views on running the Senate with cordiality and smoothness. Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz, Minister for Science and Technology Azam Swati and Senator Faisal Javed, who heads the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting, were also present during the meeting.

On behalf of the prime minister, Khattak assured full support to the Senate chairman in running the House and Sanjrani thanked the PM for this support. He said that by timely sending the minister for defence, the PM had elevated grace of the Senate.

The Senate chairman said that supremacy of the parliament and promotion of parliamentary and democratic traditions was the responsibility of all and the role of prime minister in this connection was appreciable.

Sanjrani and Khattak were hopeful that the Senate proceedings would be conducted with mutual understanding and cordially. However, in sharp contrast to the statement issued by the Senate Secretariat, the tone and tenor, as reflected in the media and during the media conference of Fawad Chaudhry, suggested a totally different picture.

The minister asserted that the cabinet was disappointed with Sadiq Sanjrani's ruling to bar him from the House. "The entire cabinet expressed regret over this decision," he remarked. Fawad also made it clear that he was voted in by the people, while Sanjrani was not elected as such. Fawad even went on to caution that if the Senate chairman was unable to bring order and balance in running the House, then the government would have to think over its strategy on the matter.