Senate amity fizzles amid treasury boycott

A day after displaying a rare unity between the treasury and the opposition, the Senate witnessed discord within its ranks on Friday, and, in an extremely rare event, a walkout by ruling coalition lawmakers in protest against their own deputy chairman.

The house met here with Deputy Chairman Syedal Khan in the chair. The senators strongly protested at the absence of the ministers in the house. The lawmakers urged the chair to adjourn the proceedings until the ministers arrived. However, proceedings continued.

Also during the session, Samina Mumtaz Zehri objected to the attendance of Senator Falak Naz Chitrali. She demanded that the chair remove Chitrali from the house because the chairman Senate had suspended her for two working sessions. This led to heated exchanges between Zehri and Chitrali.

Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani had suspended Chitrali on Tuesday for the use of inappropriate language against Senator Faisal Vawda. Sitting in the session on Friday, Vawda said that Chitrali disrespected Zehri, therefore, she should apologise, otherwise, they would boycott the proceedings.

The deputy chairman told the lawmakers that the session had been going smoothly for the last two days, and it should continue in that spirit. Vawda insisted that if Chitrali was not removed from the House, they would walk out of the house.

Later, the senators on the government benches walked out of the house, which broke the quorum. On that Dinesh Kumar pointed to a lack of quorum, which forced the chair to adjourn the session until Saturday (today) evening.

Earlier, Opposition Leader Shibi Faraz of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sadia Abbasi pointed to the absence of ministers.

Faraz said that the absence of ministers had become a pattern. In the meanwhile, Federal Minister Musadik Malik reached the house and the chair started the Question Hour.

Malik, while responding to a question, told the house that gas pipeline on Garja Road had been completed at a cost of Rs61 million. He added that a plastic pipeline was laid instead of steel pipes in various areas to avoid rusting and corrosion.

Senator Zarqa Suhrawardy said that she had asked the question about fertilizer plants, which were getting subsidy from the government, adding that her question had yet to be answered by the minister. Malik replied that all the fertiliser plants were running in profit.

He said that Rs43 billion subsidy was given to three companies. In the meanwhile, Suhrawardy and Dinesh Kumar engaged in a bitter exchange over the issue of asking supplementary questions.

Malik said fertiliser companies were not being provided gas at the same prices, adding that the Petroleum Division was working out the cost of equalisation mechanism for a fixed gas tariff to be offered to all the fertiliser plants to enhance competitiveness and benefits for the farmer community.

"We are making a policy on it and the house will have to give its support and guidance on the matter as it will be a hard task that will incur pressure on all. There are contracts that benefit the companies and deprive the farmers of subsidy benefits," he said.