ISLAMABAD – National Assembly Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi on Thursday asked Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to direct Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan to remain present in the House during its sessions to ensure smooth legislative business.
As the prime minister reached the house on Thursday, the deputy speaker drew his attention toward the continued absence of the law minister. He added that his absence was affecting the legislative business. Owing to the absence of the law minister, the National Assembly on Thursday was unable to take up the newly introduced bills ‘The Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Islamabad Bill, 2011’ and ‘The National University of Modern Languages (Amendment) Bill, 2011’ to be introduced by Education Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali.
Another bill ‘The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2011’ was also not taken up. More interestingly, Sardar Aseff was also absent. The deputy speaker took notice of the absence of the law minter and said he turned up only once remained absent during the current session. Taking cognizance of the minister’s absence, Gilani immediately sent Textile Minister Rana Farooq and State Minister Sumsam Bukhari to summon the law minister and Babar joined the session immediately.
However, as soon as the prime minister left the House, the law minister also vanished from the house without taking part in the legislative business. The deputy speaker deferred a bill ‘The Rulers of Ascending States moved by Minister for State and Frontier Region (SAFRON) Najam-ud-Din Khan for further consultation with the law minister to remove the objection raised by Zahid Hamid of PML-N.
Terming the amendment ridiculous, he asked the treasury to withdraw the bill already passed by the Senate. Consequently, Najamuddin Khan and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gull agreed with Zahid Hamid and requested the speaker to defer the bill. Meanwhile, State Minister for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar told the House that the government had made it binding on all commercial banks to pay pensions to pensioners.
