Sidelined for long? PTI questions NA speaker’s impartiality

Shah Mahmood Qureshi says not a single adjournment motion of the party has been entertained

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday cast doubts about the impartiality of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, citing as proof his refusal to take up even a single adjournment motion of the party over the past two and a half years.

“PTI has been sidelined in the National Assembly agenda,” the party’s vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the media after a meeting of the PTI parliamentarians.

Sadiq lost his seat in parliament following an election tribunal ruling but regained the same in the NA-122 by-election.

Qureshi claimed that the NA speaker had often turned a blind eye to the issues related to PTI. He pointed out that his party had not been allocated a chamber in parliament house till date. “Where should we sit in parliament?” he asked. “This has affected the performance of our MPs.”

The PTI leader also accused the NA speaker of blocking proposed bills of the party, complaining that the speaker did not allow them on the floor of the house.

Unlike their colleagues in the lower house, the party’s senators, who also attended the meeting, said that the government’s attitude towards the opposition was much better in the Senate.

The party also complained that the speaker has not replaced chairpersons of standing committee who had been expelled from the party. According to the quota based on representation in the house, the party was given three chairmanships of three committees.

Qureshi said there are three opposition groups in the lower house, but the government only treats the PPP as an opposition party. “We will talk to Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Shah and make him realise that PTI members are also part of opposition and he is our representative as well,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th,  2015.