National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza Friday cautioned the media houses against publication of expunged remarks, saying it was a breach of privilege and contempt of the house and those involved in publishing could be summoned by the privileges committee and punished.
She was responding to the issue raised by PPP MNA Nadeem Afzal Gondal, who on a point of order, asked the speaker to give ruling on publication of expunged remarks by certain newspapers.
“It is the prerogative of the speaker to expunge the remarks of a member which are unparliamentarily, indecent, undignified and defamatory,” she ruled, adding that it meant that those remarks had never been spoken and there were many rulings of the speakers and of the superior courts on the issue.
Fehmida said media was serving as an interface between the parliament and the public; therefore, utmost care should be made while reporting the assembly proceedings.
She asked media to play its role in sensitising the general public on the need for observing restraint and prudence as the society was fast losing self-control. Referring to the remarks made by PPP MNA Fauzia Wahab about Rana Sanaullah’s irresponsible statement about former law minister Babar Awan, the speaker said any member could move a resolution against the Punjab minister.
Fauzia had termed the statement of Sanaullah as a conspiracy against the treasury members, saying a similar statement had earlier resulted in the killing of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.
Sheikh Aftab claimed the matter had been resolved and the PPP member was just taking advantage of the issue which was settled in the Punjab Assembly. He said Sanaullah had contradicted the statement.
Earlier, responding to a call attention notice moved by Raja Muhammad Asad Khan and others, Minister for Water and Power Naveed Qamar said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had set up a strict monitoring system to check illegal means of long distance calls. He said the PTA in collaboration with the FIA had detected and dismantled seventy-six illegal gateways while 46 were also arrested.
