Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Thursday’s session of the National Assembly was meant to be about a singular issue but the ruling PML-N parliamentarians still availed the opportunity to voice concerns and agitate on issues that may not be in their own interest afterall.

It seemed like the MPs were there with an agenda to claim their parliamentary power – following in the footsteps of the party leader who has regained his lost position following the passage of the Election Reforms Act 2017.

It seems that the treasury members have understood the real supremacy of the Parliament, after the passage of the Electoral Reforms law that paved the way for Nawaz Sharif’s re-election as the head of the ruling party. It was this realisation, perhaps, that led a federal minister to bring up the matter of a media report claiming linkages between certain MPs and banned outfits.

Even though Riaz Pirzada was informed by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq that the Intelligence Bureau has denied the existence of any such list, the former – whose name has also been associated with the list in media reports – remained adamant that the list be made part of the Assembly’s record.

The speaker assured Pirzada that he would call up IB’s director general to his chamber for an explanation and also told him that a complaint had been lodged with Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) over reports mentioning the list. But Pirzada, who has served in all cabinets beginning with General Pervaiz Musharraf’s, didn’t calm down and went ahead
to read out names of
all over 30 MPs associated with the list.

Once he was done with that, the federal minister led a walkout from the House. He was followed by ministers and treasury members whose names were called out in association with the list in one-of-a-kind walkout.

Opposition members didn’t miss this opportunity to shout and to hoot at the government.

The single-point agenda of the session was to amend the Electoral Reforms Act 2017 passed on Thursday. The urgency surrounding the amendment was due to the uproar on omission of certain clauses relating to the Khatam-e-Nabowat (finality of Prophethood with Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

Before presenting the amendment bill, Law Minister Zahid Hamid was at pains to stress that the draft of the original legislation was not prepared by the government alone. Instead, a parliamentary committee had worked on it for three years.

Despite being a smart minister, Hamid – who also served in Musharraf’s cabinet – failed to camouflage what seemed to be a collective move by political forces to override the Apex court’s verdict disqualifying the PML-N head.

Hamid went as far as to solemnly declare that none of the MPs including himself wanted the clauses omitted. However, he skillfully hoodwinked the question about fixing responsibility for the omission.

Former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali further prolonged debate on the issue as he demanded that responsibility should be fixed for the omission.

“Either the minister did not bother to read the bill or he had been asked to carry on with it despite the ommission,” he observed. Perhaps, Jamali sahib has forgotten the good old days of his premiership when he used to respond to most questions from the press by saying that Musharraf was his boss and he had to listen to the boss. With all due respect, it doesn’t suit Jamali sahib to mock others on legislation apparently dictated from outside of the Parliament.

It seemed that PPP’s Naveed Qamar was trying to express acceptance and denial of being party to the drafting of new election law in the same sentence when he thanked the House for having done the needful in a swift manner.

Published in Daily Times, October 6^th 2017.