Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday said he would not allow the opposition members to speak on privilege motion against Nawaz Sharif.

He, however, offered the opposition to speak on point of order against the prime minister.

On this, the opposition staged a walked out from the business advisory committee. The speaker hinted that the privilege motion would be disposed of like the previous one because the Supreme Court was hearing the Panama issue. He, however, directed the National Assembly Secretariat to revisit the opposition’s motion.

The speaker chaired a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee at Parliament House which was attended by the parliamentary representatives of various parties. The meeting discussed the agenda and schedule of the current session of the assembly and it was decided that the 39th session would continue until February 7 and the government business would be taken up including legislative business, question hours and calling attention notices.

Sources said that opposition members Naveed Qamar and Sahibzada Tariqullah raised the issue of privilege motion in the committee and said the prime minister did not tell the truth to parliament in the Panamagate. They added due to his and his lawyer’s statement the privilege of the House has been affected so the speaker should take action against the prime minister.

The speaker made it clear that the issue was sub judice but he had directed his secretariat to look into the privilege motion against Nawaz and report back to him as soon as possible. The opposition insisted on debating on the motion in the House but the speaker refused. Later he said he could not allow anyone to speak on the case which was under trail in the court and he read relevant articles of the constitution in this regard as well.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah chaired a meeting of the joint opposition and decided to continue protest in the assembly on the Panama issue. The opposition finalised its strategy to give a tough time to the government and for this walkout and boycott of the session was also discussed.