Opposition absentees outnumber treasury counterparts in joint sitting

Opposition absentees outnumbered their counterparts on the treasury benches during the joint sitting of parliament on Wednesday, which passed three bills related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), official record showed on Thursday.

According to the attendance record released by the National Assembly Secretariat, more than two dozen opposition lawmakers did not turn up for the joint sitting, including 13 from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and 11 from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

From the treasury side, those conspicuous for their absence were Asim Nazir, Amir Liaquat Hussain, Ahmed Hussain Dehar and Abdul Majeed Khan of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Chaudhry Moonis Elahi of the PML-Quaid-e-Azam.

In the parliamentary session, 317 members of National Assembly, out of the lower house’s current strength of 340, were present. From the upper house of parliament, which currently has 103 members, around 14 opposition senators were absent.

The prominent absentees included former president Asif Zardari, who did not attend because of illness and Syed Khurshid Shah, who is in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau. Besides these two top PPP lawmakers, Sardar Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), was also absent.

The list also includes Amir Haider Hoti of the Awami National Party (ANP), Ali Wazir, a lawmaker from the former tribal areas, Afrin Khan of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), PML-N’s Afzal Khokhar, Ahmad Raza Maneka, Ehsanul Haq Bajwa and Riaz Pirzada and the PPP’s Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman, Amir Magsi, Khalid Loond, Roshan Junejo and Ghulam Ali Talpur.

According to the attendance record, the senators who skipped the Wednesday’s joint sitting were PML-N senators Kulsoom Parveen, Chaudhry Tanveer, Shamim Afridi, Raheela Magsi, Saleem Zia, Dilawar Khan, Yaqub Nasir and Najma Hameed.

Other absentee senators were Talha Mahmood and Ataur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Rubina Khalid of the PPP, Sitara Ayaz of the ANP, Ashok Kumar of the National Party (NP) and Tahir Bizenjo and Shafiq Tareen of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).

Parliament on Wednesday wrapped up the legislation needed to steer the country out of global money-laundering and terrorism financing watchdog’s grey list by passing three bills amid slugfest between the opposition and the treasury benches.

Though before the start of the session, the opposition appeared to have slim numerical superiority over the treasury benches, as the government had 20 more members than the opposition in the lower house, but the latter had a lead in the upper house, with 25 more senators than the treasury benches.

That had given the opposition five more members than the government side when both the houses were combined. The slim majority came despite the fact that the four seats belonging to the opposition lawmakers are currently vacant.