Irked by ministers’ absence from Senate proceedings on Friday, parliamentarians from the Awami National Party (ANP), opposition benches and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) staged walkouts on three separate occasions during the day, as the Senate chairman directed the leader of the House to take up the matter of the ministers’ absence with the prime minister.
The ministers are required to attend the proceedings of both Houses as they are accountable to parliament and reply to the questions of the members pertaining to their ministries. But ministers are usually absent from the proceedings of parliament, particularly the Upper House, leading to complaints from senators in every session. During the question hour on Friday, only Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was present and the Senate chairman had to defer a major chunk of questions pertaining to the Interior and Railways Ministry because of the absence of both ministers.
Senator Zafar Ali Shah said it often happened in the Upper House that questions were deferred because of the ministers’ absence. “This is no way to run the House and we will walk out in protest,” he said. All members of the opposition parties then staged a walkout. When the chairman sought explanation of ministers’ absence from House Leader Syed Nayyer Bukhari, he said according to the rules a minister was required to entrust his or her responsibility of answering questions to another minister in case they were absent.
“But the interior minister neither entrusted his responsibility to any other minister nor informed me of his absence,” Bukhari said. The chairman then told Bukhari to take up the matter with the prime minister. Reacting to that, Haji Adeel said no one listened to the leader of the House. “Leader of the house wrote a letter to the prime minister about providing lapsed funds back to the members but no answer has been received so far. The same thing will happen again, taking up the matter with the prime minister is useless. Parliament is being ridiculed,” he added, leading to another walkout from the House.
