NA speaker intervenes after treasury votes for cut motion

Babar Awam terms opposition’s motions a request for NRO

ISLAMABAD:

In an interesting turn of events in the National Assembly on Saturday, the treasury benches mistakenly voted for opposition’s cut motion regarding the Cabinet Division, prompting Speaker Asad Qaiser to go for another vote for its rejection.

Saturday normally remains a closed holiday for the lower house of parliament. However, the house went session for the approval of budget 2021-22, with Speaker Qaiser in the chair.

When treasury members voted in favour of the cut motion the speaker reminded the members of saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No” and put up the cut motion again. This time the treasury members voted against the motion and it was rejected.

This prompt Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Shazia Marri to rise on a point of objection, saying that the government members had earlier voted in favour of the motion. “You don’t even know what to do,” the speaker said. “It is my duty to inform the members of the procedures.”

During the session, opposition and treasury members also exchanged passed harsh remarks against each other. At one point, Rana Tanveer Hussain accused Federal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of “selling half of Kashmir and trying to sell Azad Kashmir too”.

Rana Tanveer said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should reshuffle his cabinet. He also said accused the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of political victimisation. Meanwhile, Gandapur rose on the dias and disrupted Rana’s speech. The speaker then asked them to be quiet.

Another PPP member, Abdul Qadir, said that the countries that lost the 1992 Cricket World Cup were lucky, referring to the victory of Pakistan under the captaincy of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “No one has harmed Pakistan more that this glass jar, a reference to the World Cup glass trophy.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan stood up and said that the manner in which cricket fans had offended was reprehensible. He said that the opposition’s cut motions were actually a request for a grand NRO [political amnesty] and “we reject the opposition’s NRO request”.