
Legislation business
Now nearly five months from then, the business of legislation again faces hurdles. National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has ordered cancellation of all standing committee meetings, stating that they should only be summoned while the lower house is in session. The Speaker’s order is stated to have come in line with the government’s austerity drive, but the opposition calls the order ‘illegal’ and an ‘attack on parliament’. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto insists the Speaker seems totally ignorant of the importance of the standing committees which are ‘the brain of parliament’.
That parliament is incomplete without the standing committees is hardly debatable. It is these committees that set groundwork for the House’s future session. As the opposition sees an element of politics behind the Speaker’s order, it is unlikely to accept it as it is. The opposition may even boycott the committee meetings altogether. This threatens to leave the House dysfunctional — yet again.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2019.
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