Open to suggestions: NA speaker invites opposition to suggest amendments in PPB

LAHORE: The speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday said that he has asked the opposition parties to suggest amendments to the Pakistan Protection Ordinance Bill, Radio Pakistan reported.

Sadiq was addressing the media in Lahore.

Last week, during a session of the National Assembly, the Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) was met with a lot of criticism from the opposition.

“It would be against parliamentary norms if consensus is not developed before tabling this bill and if you will pass it in the lower house, then it might not be possible for you to go through with it in the upper house of parliament,” warned opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) termed the bill ‘regressive as a whole’ while the PTI’s Dr Shireen Mazari said the government should declare itself a ‘civilian dictatorship’ if it planned to run the country through ordinances. “This is a black law and it is an extra-constitution move,” said the MQM’s Farooq Sattar, who warned that the law ‘will be used for political victimisation’.

Furthermore, the speaker also announced that the government and the Taliban committees are working on resolving the issue of terrorism.