Senate session: CCI meeting delays earn opposition’s ire

Rabbani alleges PML-N govt is obstructing passage of legislative bills in parliament.

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition in Senate on Friday blamed the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government for pushing the system of governance towards centralisation by not summoning the meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) even after the lapse of the mandatory period of 90 days.

The opposition also staged a token walkout of the house against the government’s delay in calling the meeting.

On a point of order Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani pointed out that it was mandatory to convene a CCI meeting within 90 days, but even after the lapse of 135 days, the government had not bothered to call a meeting of this important forum where key decisions are taken on major national issues.

“In the past, there was a presidential system and it seems that now there is an executive form of government,” the PPP senator said.

He underlined that the CCI is a key forum to take decisions on important national issues, where chief ministers of all the four federating units represent their provinces, but the PML-N government had ignored it and decisions on key issues were being taken unilaterally.

Rabbani also pointed out that not a single legislative bill had been passed either in the Senate or in the National Assembly since the federal government started its term.



“The government takes major economic decisions by just issuing SROs without discussing them in parliament. Naturally, this parliament has become irrelevant,” Rabbani said, alleging that the government was creating hurdles in presenting legislative bills in the upper house due to the majority of PPP lawmakers in the Senate, as the passage of any bill will create trouble for the government in the lower house.

Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq said that the government will call a CCI meeting soon after finalising the agenda. The response further piqued Rabbani, who stood up and said “I am not ready to buy this argument, there is a plethora of issues in the provinces, but the government seems disinterested in calling a meeting.”

Following this Rabbani led a token walkout from the house. Later, Mushahidullah of the PML-N convinced the opposition lawmakers to rejoin the proceedings.

Gas tariff

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar informed the house that there was no plan to increase gas tariff for domestic consumers. He said the government had planned to raise tariff for industries which consumed gas and made billions in profit. The minister said that some industries including fertilisers earned huge profit by using cheap gas and the proposed increase will collect around Rs53 billion.

During question hour, ANP Senator Zahid Khan pointed out that despite devolution of the subjects of health and education, respective ministries were being operated from the Centre.

Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari referred the issue to the Special Committee on the Devolution of Powers to review the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.