Listless session: Once again, govt fails to maintain quorum in NA

Lower house passes PNAC bill; Dar promises notification about salaries of MPs

ISLAMABAD: The government has failed to complete quorum in the National Assembly — yet again — leading to abrupt adjournment of the assembly proceedings on Wednesday and leaving most of the items on the agenda unattended.

However, the lower house passed the Pakistan National Accreditation Council Bill, 2016.

The bill furnishes an institutional mechanism for complying with the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and to improve the quality of products and services for socio-economic development.

The house could not take up another proposed legislation – Public-Private Partnership Authority Bill, 2016 -- due to lack of quorum.

Despite having an overwhelming majority in the lower house, the treasury benches have been struggling to ensure there are sufficient members to complete quorum since the session started last Friday.



The statement of objects and reasons of the Pakistan National Accreditation Council Bill, 2016 states that the “Ministry of Science and Technology will establish Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) with the approval of the competent authority.

“The PNAC is aimed at establishing an internationally-recognised accreditation system to accredit bodies including laboratories, certification bodies and inspection agencies, etc, to address non-tariff barriers to trade.”

Also, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar informed the house that his ministry would issue a notification regarding the raise in salaries of parliamentarians in the next few days. He said this order will be applicable from first October 2016 (last month).

The federal cabinet earlier in the day approved the generous increase in the salaries of members of parliament, cabinet members, the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker, and the Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

He also clarified that there is no need of new legislation to hike the salaries of parliamentarians. The house already passed a clause about increasing their salaries in the Finance Bill (2016-17), he added.

He said the basic pay of the members of parliament has been increased from Rs44,630 to Rs150,000. He said the basic salary of a federal minister has been increased from Rs114,897 to Rs200,000 while that of the minister of state -- from Rs106,281 to Rs180,000.

He said the basic pay of the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman has been increased from Rs119,008 to Rs205,000 while the deputy speaker and the deputy chairman -- from Rs110,085 to Rs185,000.

The law and justice minister presented reports of the Council of Islamic Ideology from 1978 to 2012.

The house also offered Fateha for the departed soul of former acting prime minister Moeen Qureshi and those who were martyred in unprovoked Indian shelling along the Line of Control.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2016.