Absence of federal ministers: Opposition protests, stages walkout from Senate

ISLAMABAD: The joint opposition in the Senate on Tuesday strongly agitated on the absence of Federal Minister for Interior Ijaz Ahmad Shah from the House during the question hour and staged a walkout to register their protest.

Senators belonging to the opposition and treasury benches, exchanged hot words and even resorted to allegations and counter-allegations with regard to the smooth functioning of the proceedings.

At the very outset of the sitting, former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani was on his feet to point out that replies were not given to nine written questions and the interior minister was also not around. To this, Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani said that minister of state was present to give replies to supplementary questions.

However, Rabbani insisted that the federal minister for interior must have been present in the House, forcing Leader of the House Shibli Faraz to maintain that despite the cabinet meeting, the Senate Secretariat was informed about this; ministers were present to reply to questions.

He recalled that during the tenure of Rabbani as chairman Senate, then minister for State Sh. Aftab Ahmad had responded to 634 questions and that Rabbani would not allow members to speak on issues other than the items listed on the orders of the day. He alleged the opposition wanted to sabotage the House proceedings through agitation.

Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and State Minister Muhammad Azam Swati and Ali Muhammad Khan respectively criticised the opposition for disrupting the House business despite having agreed to ensuring smooth proceedings. Ministers were also present in the House for accountability before the senators with regards to public issues.

Afterwards, majority of the members from both sides of the aisle, was on its feet, the senators shouting at the top of their voice; there was hardly anything audible. Combined opposition then walked out, exposing the House to lack of quorum, as quorum was pointed out by one of the opposition senators.

Count was made on the order of the chair and then bells rung for five minutes on finding lack of quorum. During this time, Shibli Faraz and some other senators convinced the opposition to return to the House.

During the question hour, to a query, Ali Muhammad told the House that 15 special police stations had been established across the country to deal with cyber-crimes. He said that the incumbent government had made cyber-crime wing fully functional by paying the outstanding salaries of its staff who had not been paid for the last 18 months.

The chair referred the issue of foreign visits of Nadra officials, involving significant amounts, to the House standing committee concerned after Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood agitated on this.

The House was informed that the government had signed MoUs 76 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and these included Union Aid for Afghan Refugees, eleven belonging to the United Kingdom and ten belonging to Germany and three were from Saudi Arabia, and most of these i.e. 19 belonged to the United States.

Sanjrani also referred the matter relating to land settlement in ‘Fata’ after its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the House standing committee concerned on the request of PML-N Senator Pir Muhammad Sabir Shah. He made this request after Minister for State and Frontier Regions Shehryar Afridi said that no land settlement unit had been formed so far, as recommended by the Fata Reforms Committee in 2016. He added that earlier Fata Secretariat had approved PC-I for land Settlement but after 25th Constitutional Amendment, the Land Settlement and Preparation of Revenue Record became exclusive domain of provincial government.

Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Sirajul Haq, Leader of House in the Senate Shibli Faraz said international increase in the prices of petroleum products and devaluation of currency has led to increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and LNG in the country. He, however, said that our petrol and diesel prices are still lower than those in India and Bangladesh.

PPP Senator Rukhsana Zuberi and Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of BNP-Mengal called for countrywide awareness on water management and conservation even at houses in the face of water emergency in Pakistan, as they lamented water pipe was used even to wash cars and this precious resource was wasted while taking bath and even brushing teeth.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said categorically that there was no threat to the country’s nuclear programme and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, as there was a national consensus on both.

Talking in the Senate on Tuesday, while defending the appointment of Dr Reza Baqir as governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the minister also emphasised that there was no question of rolling back the 18th constitutional amendment. He also rejected the impression that Pakistan was moving towards one unit system.

Qureshi was responding to former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani tirade, who, while speaking on an adjournment motion, charged that Pakistan’s economy was in total control of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as both adviser to the prime minister on finance Dr. Hafeez Sheikh and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Dr Reza Baqir had served the donor agency.

Rabbani pointed out, “The major concern is that our economy is in total control of IMF. The PM’s adviser on economy and recent appointment of SBP governor is a total surrender of Pakistan’s financial sovereignty to IMF. And now the concern is that NFC and process of devolution will be rolled back on the dictation of IMF”.

Citing the leaked documents pertaining to American national security manual by Wikileaks, he said that it says that institutions like IMF and the World Bank and others such financial institution are used by US and its army in furthering their agendas. “This is exactly what we are witnessing in the country today, as our economy is in total control of people, who have worked with IMF for so many years, and the new SBP governor is coming straight from IMF,” he noted.

Qureshi explained the president had constituted the 9th NFC award but despite repeated requests by the former finance minister Asad Umar, the provincial governments delayed the process of nominating its representatives for the NFC award. He said the government was committed to announce NFC and the opposition should not try to prove its patriotism while the previous PML-N government failed to fulfill its constitutional requirement in its five-year term.

Rabbani said that the prime minister had said that provinces had failed to collect tax, which was a white lie as during the last ten months, Sindh Revenue Board, collected Rs127 billion -- 6 percent more than the Centre. He added that as to when NFC would be announced, was becoming a question mark, as its membership, which comprise the federal finance minister along with provincial finance ministers -- and in this case, the prime minister, who is the minister in-charge, will have to preside over the NFC meeting, which seems quite unlikely.

Senator Mushahidullah Khan of PML-N said that SBP governor had all the secret information pertaining to the economy of the country, but even then, the government handpicked a serving IMF employee as SBP governor, which was no less than a surgical strike on Pakistan’s economy.