ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Wednesday witnessed presentation of two identical motions by MQM and JUI-F members demanding to declare seats of 28 PTI lawmakers vacant who remained absent without leave for forty consecutive days of its sittings.
Twenty-three lawmakers of MQM sponsored this motion including Dr. Muhammd Farooq Sattar, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Saddiqui, Syed Waseem Hussain, Muhammad Salman Khan Baloch, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, S.A Iqbal Qadir, Mehboob Alam, Abdul Waseem, Sheikh Salahuddin, Muhammd Rehan Hashmi, Sufyan Yusuf, Syed Ali Raza Abidi, Abdul Rashid Godil, Muhammad Muzammil Qureshi, Muhammad Ali Rashid, Syed Asif Hasnain, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Sajid Ahmed, Sanjay Perwani, Dr.Fouzia Hhameed, Ms. Kishwer Zehra, Dr. Nikhat Shakeel Khan and Ms. Saman Sultana Jafri
Eight JUI-F lawmakers sponsored the identical resolution to declare 28 seats of PTI lawmakers vacant under clause (2) of Article 64 of the Constitution. Those who sponsored this motion from JUI-F included Ms. Naeema Kishwer Khan, Ms. Asiya Nasir, Ms. Shahida Akhtar Ali, Ms. Aliya Kamran, Dr. Ibadullah, Molvi Agha Muhammad, Qari Muhammad Yousaf and Molauna Muhammad Gohar Shah
The Chair ruled that consideration of the motions regarding de-seating of 28 PTI MNAs will be taken up after expiry of seven days under the Rules and Procedures and Conduct of Business.
During the question hour, the chair took notice of absence of some Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries and senior bureaucrats and summoned secretaries of Ministries of Commerce, Textile and Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan to his chamber.
The proceedings of the House remained suspended for 21 minutes (1139 hours to 1200 hours) and Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq announced to resume the proceedings after consultation with ministers present in the House. The Speaker said that it is the last opportunity for concerned departments to take the question hour seriously and reply answers in time.
The second sitting of 21th session of Lower House of the Parliament left over 58 per cent of the agenda unaddressed. Twenty-one lawmakers (6%) were present at the start of the sitting and 41 (12%) at the time of adjournment. The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting while the Leader of Opposition was present for 71 minutes (44%) of the proceedings’ time.
The House did not take up five resolutions on the agenda. They were about deputing female staff in the departments of Gynae, Breast Cancer and Mammogram in all hospitals in the Federal Capital, merging all ad-hoc allowances into the basic pay of government servants, promoting hydel power projects to meet the energy crisis, establishing a women’s university in Buner and controlling the price-hike in the country.
Five motions under Rule 259 were not taken as two of them were identical about problems being faced by the female patients due to not posting of female staff in the gyane, breast cancer and mammogram wards in the federal government hospitals, problems being faced by Pakistani workers abroad, increasing the amount of house building advance of the government employees and discussion on Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) policy.
Four bills – the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2015 for Insertion of Section 296 A, the Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2015 (Amendment of Section 161), the Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Bill 2015 and the Indus River System Authority (Amendment) Bill 2015 (Amendment of Section 12 and Insertion of new sections) – were not introduced in the House.
The House did not consider the four proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure. The House took up two calling attention notices (CANs) regarding delay in construction of bridge on River Ravi at Syedwala and about reservations on LNG import and regasification agreement with ENGRO.
The House discussed a commenced resolution about steps to control electricity pilferage for 27 minutes. Five lawmakers – one each of JUI-F, PTI, JI, PPPP and PML-N – participated in the debate.
The Chairman Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights presented the reports on the Constitution (Twenty-second Amendment) Bill 2014 and the Constitution (Twenty-fourth Amendment) Bill 2014.
Four proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure were referred to relevant committee for further deliberations. Five out of 32 starred questions appearing on the agenda were taken up. Additionally, the legislators raised seven supplementary questions.
Ten points of order consumed 15 minutes of the sitting time. The next sitting will be held on Thursday at 1030 hours.