A call for ‘long march’ from the Parliament House to the Prime Minister’s House echoed in the Senate on Saturday as Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) treasury members joined the opposition to stage a walkout against ministers’ absence, forcing a lack of quorum that eventually led to the adjournment of the House proceedings.
Saturday’s walkout was also evidence of the fragile coalition between the PPP-led government and its allies. Reacting strongly to the ministers’ absence from the Upper House during the Question Hour, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl Senator Ismail Buledi addressed Deputy Chairman Senate Jan Muhammad Jamali, who was presiding over the proceedings, asking him to take notice of the ministers’ absence. He said not even a single minister was present in the House despite a ruling by the Senate chairman that ministers must ensure their presence in the House to answer questions. The ministers even did not inform the leader of the House in this regard, Buledi added. Addressing the deputy chairman, Buledi said, “If your ruling is ineffective, if the leader of the House in the Senate is ineffective, then we are left with only one option and we have to take out a long march from the Parliament House to the Prime Minister’s House and you should lead that march.”
Senator Haji Adeel said a large number of ministers constituted the federal cabinet and even the prime minister himself might not know their names and portfolios. The Senate deputy chairman said the ministers’ presence in the Senate was mandatory per the constitution. Upon this, Senator Buledi again stood up and asked what would be the punishment if a minister violating the constitution did not attend the proceedings of the House. The deputy chairman said everybody knew the punishment for violating the constitution. MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi remarked that all ministers slept after 3 or 4am in the morning because they belonged to the ruling elite, which always kept busy discussing national political issues.
“The Senate meetings should take place in the evening, keeping in view busy schedules and sleeping hours of the elite ministers and let them ridicule poor people like us,” Senator Mashhadi said. Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed said the questions to be asked had been deferred a few days ago due to the ministers’ absence and they would be deferred again today which reflected the seriousness of the government in running the House business. Leader of the House in the Senate Nayyar Bukhari, however, said there was no justification for the walkout as the proceeding of the House could move forward because he would answer the questions raised by the members on behalf of the minister in-charge of the Cabinet Division and Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Almgir was already present in the House.
Alamgir had entered the Senate when the debate on the ministers’ absence was underway. Bukhari also suggested that the questions of the remaining ministers should be deferred or taken as read. PML-N Senator Raja Zafarul Haq said the ministers’ absence was a frequent occurrence and the senators were tired of protesting every day. He said his party would stage a walkout in protest. All opposition parties, the ANP and all members of PML-Q, except Wasim Sajjad and Javed Ashraf Qazi, walked out of the Senate on the call given by Haq. Once the senators went out of the Senate, Senator Wali Badini pointed out that proceedings of the House could not be held as the quorum was incomplete. The deputy chairman asked for the bells to be rung, but the quorum was not attained and the house was ultimately adjourned.
