Second day in a row: Opposition again blocks Senate proceedings

Members of five political groupings stage token walkout.

ISLAMABAD:

Opposition parties in the Senate on Thursday blocked the proceedings of the house for the second consecutive session, leaving all but the question hour pending.

In the Opposition dominated upper house, members of opposition parties protesting the termination of service of contractual employees and alleged rigging in by-polls in a constituency of Azad Jammu and Kashmir staged a walkout and pointed out the lack of quorum.

Only 13 members were sitting on the treasury benches when the headcount was made. The chairman rang the bell for five minutes, but treasury failed to gather even one-fourth of its strength in the 103-member upper house. This forced the chair to adjourn the session for a second time.

The opposition on Tuesday had also blocked the proceedings in protest of quorum. As soon as the question hour was over, Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led federal government of repeating what he called the ‘90s anti-labour’ policy by terminating services of contractual employees working in different public sector organisations.



He claimed that the cabinet division had issued a notification on February 8 not to renew the services of contractual employees at Oil and Gas Development Authority (OGDCL), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP).

He also flayed the government for non-payment of salaries to PSM employees, who have been without pay for the last three months.

The MQM members also endorsed the opposition’s stance over the termination of contractual employees. Parties in the Opposition, including PPP, MQM, PML-Q, ANP, and BNP-A staged a token walkout.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2014.