Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Irfan Siddiqui on Sunday said the previous government of Imran Khan was worst in terms of transparency and accountability, which can be gauged from the fact that even members of the Parliament were deprived of their right to ask questions.

The Senator, in his articles published on various web magazines, said as per the Senate’s figures, 1,579 questions were asked during the last parliamentary year, of which only 409 (25.90%) were answered in the House. “Three-quarters of the questions (74.10%) were rejected with some excuse and were not allowed to be asked by the deposed regime of Imran Khan”, he added.

He said that the questions asked by the senators had to go through so many factions of the Secretariat.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui said he was not even allowed to ask how many vehicles were purchased by the Cabinet Division.

“When contacted, the deputy chairman said that since the prime minister was in charge of the cabinet division, it was not appropriate to ask him”, he mentioned.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui added that the question of Toshakhana was submitted to the Secretariat thrice but he was not allowed to ask and no reason was given.

In his article, Senator Irfan Siddiqui referred to various questions asked about the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Interior, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Law and other departments which were not allowed to be asked for one reason or another. He termed the upper house as an altar of questions.