NA, Senate to meet amid political uncertainty
Speculations of a looming upheaval on the country’s political horizon expected to be at the centre of debate.
ISLAMABAD:
The National Assembly and the Senate will start fresh sessions on Monday evening. Speculations of a looming upheaval on the country’s political horizon are expected to be at the centre of debate.
An inevitable change, within the constitution’s parameters or otherwise, is rumoured. Talk of change is not just making the rounds among elitist political circles, it is also the topic of many a roadside conversation.
The same is likely to be reflected from the speeches that MPs from various political groups have prepared to deliver to both the chambers of parliament.
Against the backdrop of regime change rumours in Pakistan, the separate sittings of the houses will provide observers a glimpse of what could possibly happen in the political arena.
With political parties preparing fresh alignments to readjust their positions according to the emerging situation, the debates in both houses are likely to be reflective of the ‘new ground realities’.
There won’t, however, be any action from the word go.
Meeting for the first time after the demise of one of its former members, Abdul Razzaq Thahim, the Senate is hardly to take up any business on the opening day of the session to follow a parliamentary tradition. The National Assembly is also unlikely to undertake any agenda for the same reason.
One of its members, Dr Imran Farooq of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has recently been assassinated in London by as yet unknown assailants, which is why the MQM will not attend the sessions as part of the ten-day mourning it has announced.
On the agenda for the rest of the session for the National Assembly, there are three bills including one aimed at re-establishing the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), an official regulatory arm to check cartelisation of industries.
Another bill, according to secretariat officials, would legalise the status of several thousand employees that the PPP government had reinstated to various ministries and departments. These employees were given jobs during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s last stint in power between 1993 and 1997 but were sacked by the administration that followed.
The house is also likely to take up proposed bills on National Disaster Management Authority.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Babar Awan said on Sunday that a joint resolution condemning security forces’ atrocities in Indian Kashmir would be tabled at the session of the National Assembly on Monday.
Some important adjournment motions include the one submitted by the PML-N on the shoe-throwing incident in London involving President Asif Ali Zardari, the anti-Pakistan statement of British premier David Cameron in India, the maltreatment meted out to a military delegation at a United States airport, and the raise in power tariff. All these could provide ample opportunity to the main opposition party to show its muscles.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2010.
The National Assembly and the Senate will start fresh sessions on Monday evening. Speculations of a looming upheaval on the country’s political horizon are expected to be at the centre of debate.
An inevitable change, within the constitution’s parameters or otherwise, is rumoured. Talk of change is not just making the rounds among elitist political circles, it is also the topic of many a roadside conversation.
The same is likely to be reflected from the speeches that MPs from various political groups have prepared to deliver to both the chambers of parliament.
Against the backdrop of regime change rumours in Pakistan, the separate sittings of the houses will provide observers a glimpse of what could possibly happen in the political arena.
With political parties preparing fresh alignments to readjust their positions according to the emerging situation, the debates in both houses are likely to be reflective of the ‘new ground realities’.
There won’t, however, be any action from the word go.
Meeting for the first time after the demise of one of its former members, Abdul Razzaq Thahim, the Senate is hardly to take up any business on the opening day of the session to follow a parliamentary tradition. The National Assembly is also unlikely to undertake any agenda for the same reason.
One of its members, Dr Imran Farooq of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has recently been assassinated in London by as yet unknown assailants, which is why the MQM will not attend the sessions as part of the ten-day mourning it has announced.
On the agenda for the rest of the session for the National Assembly, there are three bills including one aimed at re-establishing the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), an official regulatory arm to check cartelisation of industries.
Another bill, according to secretariat officials, would legalise the status of several thousand employees that the PPP government had reinstated to various ministries and departments. These employees were given jobs during the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)’s last stint in power between 1993 and 1997 but were sacked by the administration that followed.
The house is also likely to take up proposed bills on National Disaster Management Authority.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Babar Awan said on Sunday that a joint resolution condemning security forces’ atrocities in Indian Kashmir would be tabled at the session of the National Assembly on Monday.
Some important adjournment motions include the one submitted by the PML-N on the shoe-throwing incident in London involving President Asif Ali Zardari, the anti-Pakistan statement of British premier David Cameron in India, the maltreatment meted out to a military delegation at a United States airport, and the raise in power tariff. All these could provide ample opportunity to the main opposition party to show its muscles.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 20th, 2010.