PHOTO: EXPRESS
“If this continues, I will not show restraint. The chair has the discretionary powers under the Constitution to ban the entry of a member and any minister from attending one or the entire sitting of the house,” he warned the absent ministers.
Raza Rabbani was about to give a ruling but instead issued his last warning to the ministers, their deputies and advisers who were absent during the question hour session in the upper house of parliament. He dropped the questions after the ministers, especially Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, did not show up for the third consecutive session to answer the questions related to his ministry despite repeated warnings by the chairman.
The ministers had sent written requests to the Senate secretariat that they would not attend Tuesday’s session due to their engagement with the prime minister in connection with the inauguration of the solar power project in Bahawalpur.
Resolution on ‘caricature’
The house agreed to bring in a resolution, probably on Wednesday (today), to condemn the conference on sacrilegious cartoons in the United States. It was Senator Mushahid Husain Sayed of the PML-Q who urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to write to US President Barack Obama over the issue and ask the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to write a letter to the US president as well.
Stranger in the house
Chairman Raza Rabbani suspended a sergeant-at-arms when a stranger walked into the house, putting a question mark over the security arrangements at the house. It happened in the middle of the session when a man entered the house by dodging the sergeant, saying he was a senator.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2015.
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