Treasury outbids opposition in Senate too

ISLAMABAD:

The government on Friday defeated the opposition in Senate by passing four important bills, including the National Accountability Amendment Bill 2021 and the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill 2021, despite the latter having a majority in the upper house of parliament.

This was the second major setback for the opposition after the defeat it had suffered in Wednesday’s joint sitting of parliament, during which the government has succeeded in having passed a record number of 33 bills, which included the use of electronic voting machines in the next general elections and e-voting for Pakistanis living abroad.

Despite the opposition’s outcry, the treasury benches also managed to have the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the Higher Education Commission (Second Amendment) Bill 2021 passed during the Senate session.

The treasury benches presented the amendment bill related to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and demanded that it should be passed by the House.

However, the opposition demanded that Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani should refer the bill to the respective committee.

As Sanjrani was about to refer the bill, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan taunted that it appeared that he was the chairman of the opposition only.

“It seems as if we haven’t voted for you [Sanjrani],” he added.

Sanjrani replied that he was the chairman of the entire House.

Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem pointed out that the bill was not for a single individual but for every person.

He advised the chairman that the power to pass a bill or be referred to the committee depended on the will of the entire House.

He added that the chairman should ask the House and decide on the basis of majority.
The chairman put the bill to a vote and the opposition suffered its first defeat when 34 votes were cast in its favour and 28 against it. Later, another amendment bill related to the HEC was passed by a majority vote.

Considering the shortage of the opposition members in the House, the government introduced two bills on a supplementary agenda.

The media protection bill was presented by Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari and the law minister presented the accountability law amendment bill.

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The opposition members chanted slogans and protested against the introduction of the supplementary agenda, but their efforts proved to be futile.

The opposition demanded that both the bills should be forwarded to their respective standing committees.

Mazari said it had taken her ministry a year to formulate the bill.
Sanjrani conducted a voting on the media protection bill and 35 votes were cast in its favour of and 29 against it.

Independent Senator Dilawar Khan Group also voted in favour of the bill.

The law minister introduced the accountability law amendment bill and it was passed as the treasury benches had already shown their numerical majority in the House.

When the bills were passed, the enraged opposition members surrounded the chairman's dais, chanted slogans and tore up copies of the agenda.

The chairman adjourned the session of an indefinite period.

Earlier, Mazari introduced The Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The National Commission on the Rights of Child (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The Juvenile Justice System (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The Islamabad Capital Territory Child Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021, in the House.

They were referred to their respective standing committees.

Later, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted that the government was unwilling to allow the provinces to "speak or breathe".

"What was left of parliament in the Senate was destroyed today when the treasury introduced a supplementary agenda at 12.35pm without laying bills and just called in members to bulldoze a NAB bill. From now on the Senate too will not run," she wrote.

She said the office of the leader of the opposition had been told that all bills would go to respective standing committees but they were not sent.

She added that the NAB bill was presented after members had left for the Friday prayers.

"Because friends in the media are asking: we did NOT oppose the journalist protection bill but were asking for it to go to a standing committee, same as what we wanted for all bills after the supplementary agenda was produced when members had left for Friday prayers.”

Separately, Mazari congratulated media personnel on the passage of the journalist protection bill.
"Today, a two-year struggle to provide a comprehensive journalist and media professionals protection law, drafted in consultation with journalists' bodies, was finally realised through parliament," she said.