With the energy situation improving and load shedding on the decline, a majority of legislators from all political parties remained absent from National Assembly proceedings on Friday, while those present showed a lack of interest in the debate on the energy. Those who did took the floor of the House for debate focused on dengue, corruption, law and order and other issues.
However, it was PML-N MNA Zahid Hamid who sought resignation from the chief executives of the federal and Sindh governments in wake of the Supreme Court verdict on Karachi. All the legislators of the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) did not turn up for the third consecutive day, while most of MPs from the PML-Q, ANP and the JUI-F also remained absent.
However, despite improvement in load shedding situation, PPP Chief Whip and Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid moved a motion seeking consent of the House to continue the energy debate next week on the pretext that more legislators wanted to put forth their suggestion to eliminate the menace of load shedding, price hike in petroleum, dengue epidemic and other issues confronting the nation.
The motion was adopted unanimously and it was decided that the debate would continue on Monday. But PML-N MNA from Rawalpindi, Shakil Awan, focused on the grilling the Presidency for load shedding, saying that soon after the raging protests across Punjab, a swift decrease in load shedding was meaningful and hinted at a conspiracy being hatched by the Presidency. He claimed that this episode had proved that the load shedding was artificial.
“If the three-and-a-half-year-old load shedding issue could be resolved within 36 hours, why was it not resolved earlier. It proves that load shedding was artificial,” he said. Former state minister of the PPP Sardar Salim Haider tried to respond saying the people of Punjab were shouting slogans ‘go Shahbaz go’. Lt General Abdul Qadir Baloch of the PML-N appreciated the immediate measures of the government that led to the culmination of load shedding.
Referring to the recent wave of killings of Hazara Shias in Balochistan, General Qadir said over 60 people of the community were killed in the last 10 days in Quetta and those killed should be given compensation as practiced in other provinces. Speaking on a point of order, Khawaja Asif of the PML-N said he had been deprived of Rs 10 million development funds.
