Parliament unlikely to complete 130 mandatory sittings

ISLAMABAD: The deferment of the National Assembly session yet another time in a haphazard manner by the government indicates that the schedule of Parliament and annual calendar of sessions of the lower house of Parliament would hardly be adhered to and it will be hard for the House to complete 130 days mandatory sittings in the parliamentary year.

Well-placed parliamentary sources told The News/Jang Friday that a requisition submitted by the opposition for summoning the National Assembly session was withdrawn by the movers on the government assurance that the sitting was being summoned on December 2 but the government after summoning it got it revoked through presidential orders at the eleventh hour.

Interestingly, the parliamentary affairs ministry has federal and state ministers both, but it has also miserably failed in fulfilling its obligation in the fashion some other ministries have failed.

The National Assembly had always been summoned according to the announced/agreed schedule and parliamentary calendar during five years of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government except two occasions when some emergency came in its way.

The present National Assembly faced disorder in the schedule in eleven sessions out of fifteen held so far. The 16th session of the incumbent National Assembly that was summoned by the president on December 2 is likely to be convened for Thursday (December 5).

The presidential orders will be issued afresh for the purpose. The speaker National Assembly didn’t issue production orders for bringing the detained members belonging to the opposition in the House including former president Asif Ali Zardari, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former leader of the opposition Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq and former Punjab senior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan.

The failure of the speaker in issuing production orders for the detained members of the House had been creating rumpus in the House in its last four sessions and that forced the Leader of the House Prime Minister Imran Khan to stay away from it.

The sources said it was unlikely that an amendment to Article 243 of the Constitution to facilitate the tenure and fulfill other requisites for Chief of Army Staff/Services Chiefs in the light of the verdict of the apex court of December 28 (Thursday) since working on the amendment has yet to be started. The upcoming session could take up the amendment to the Army Act of 1952 and it could be placed before the House for initial legislation.

The government will have to prepare fool-proof drafts for the purpose and opposition is also supposed to be taken on board, if the government is interested in smooth passage of legislation pertaining to the service chiefs, the sources added.

The sources said the National Assembly will allow withdrawal of 11 bills which were adopted in less than two hours by the House in 15th session through bulldozing by the deputy speaker of the National Assembly who was chairing the session. It compelled the opposition to table no-trust motion against the deputy speaker. The opposition and government later reached an agreement that the government would withdraw the bills and allow them to be wetted through the committees, while the opposition will withdraw the no confidence motion against the deputy speaker.

The sources pointed out that since the opposition had already withdrawn no trust motion, the government would withdraw approval of all eleven bills on the commencement of next sitting. They all will be tabled again on the same day and would be referred to the standing committees concerned except three which had already been routed through the committees and will be placed for discussion on the reports of the committees concerned. Meanwhile, former speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has regretted that the dignity and grace of Parliament has been compromised by the incumbent government through its irresponsible handling of the House.