Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday did not allow PTI’s Asad Umar to speak over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s contradictory statement in the Assembly and in Supreme Court.

While the PTI legislators continued their protests, shouting against the PM and his government, the ruling party was in defensive mode in today’s proceeding of the National Assembly. The speaker told Asad Umar to discuss only Justice Qazi Issa’s report over the Quetta incident and avoid discussing the PM’s Panama issue as it was already discussed.

During the arguments between Speaker and PTI members, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in yesterday’s speech PML-N Danyal Aziz spoke a0bout all matters on the basis of which you (Speaker) rejected the privilege motion of PTI and PPP. The privilege motion was related to PM’s contradictory statement in the National Assembly and the statement presented by PM in the Supreme Court through his lawyer.

In the short speech Asad Umar said Danyal Aziz was famous for his speeches against Nawaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar and for the entire PML-N. He claimed nowadays the MNA was supporting the PML-N but in the past, he was a great enemy of the party. Umar also claimed that the Prime Minister misguided the entire nation through his speech in the national assembly and should come and explain his position in the house.

However, the Speaker never allowed him to speak about PM and asked Umar to say something about the Justice Qazi Essa commission report. The Speaker threatened that if Asad Umar continued to speak over PM speech, then he had no option but to prorogue the proceeding, a threat he made good on. In the meantime, both the members of PML-N and PTI shouted against each other and like the previous day, the house become a fish market where no one was ready to listen to each other.

Earlier, PPP legislator Naveed Qamar raised the issue of placing the five regulatory bodies, claiming it was a grave violation of the constitution and rules. It would badly affect the performance of these autonomous bodies. It was unjust that the government, in one fell swoop, put five regulatory bodies under line ministries.

Replying to a point raised by Syed Naveed Qamar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi regarding the placing of the regulatory bodies under the ministries, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the government was in no way influencing the regulators.