Treasury legislators on Monday grilled the Minister for Regulation and Services Firdous Ashiq Awan for “trashing” the unanimous recommendations by the Upper House on Drug Regulation Authority (DRA) and accused Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi for pressurizing the minister to pursue her own DRA drafted “in violation of provincial autonomy”.
N the other hand, differences between two major opposition parties further widened on Monday as the PML-N and JUI-F senators failed to evolve a unanimous strategy over the statement by Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar about possible UN sanctions on Pakistan for closing NATO supply routes.
Resultantly, the PML-N members announced to boycott the Senate proceedings while the JUI-F senators observed a mere “token boycott”.
In another rare gesture of unanimity, senators from the MQM and ANP – two bitter rivals – besides members from other major coalition partners unanimously grilled Nargis Sethi, saying the House would not allow the minister to follow a “fake DRA” which was drafted to benefit some influential.
Speaking on a point of order, Abdul Haseeb Khan of the MQM said the Ministry of Regulations had been making a mockery of the DRA and the provincial autonomy was being compromised.
He alleged that the DRA the ministry was pursuing was “fake” and was actually drafted by a federal secretary.
“If the ministry pursues the DRA drafted by the certain bureaucrat, we will not allow proceedings of this House. All the members of this House had worked hard to formulate a consensus draft and we will not allow a bureaucrat to compromise provincial autonomy,” he asserted.
Ilyas Bilour of the ANP supported the views and said no one would be allowed to make a mockery of provincial autonomy, which had been achieved after a struggle of 60 years. He claimed that the Health Ministry had not yet been fully devolved to the provinces. He said making DRA was a prerogative of the provincial governments, but the federation was doing so.
Maulana Mohammed Khan Sherani of the JUI-F also backed the views expressed by Bilour, saying the devolution plan was being jeopardised. He said the government was following the policies of past regimes by denying provincial autonomy, despite the passage of the 18th Amendment. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the DRA was being formed on the apex court’s direction. He asked the minister for regulation and services to respond to the allegations levelled by the members of the House.
Senator Zahid Khan said it was the authority of the provincial assemblies to constitute DRA and the apex court had directed the federal government to form the body as the provinces did not form it.
He said the ministry had been formed to accommodate the minister who had no role and rather a bureaucrat was involved in amending the DRA draft passed by the House. Senator Kulsoom Perveen of BNP-Awami said the DRA available with the ministry was not formulated by the House and it had been reshaped by a bureaucrat who amended it to serve her purposes.
Senator Afrasiab Khattak of the ANP said the decision to empower the federal government to form DRA was taken by the implementation commission on 18th Amendment after seeking approval from provincial assemblies. He said if the parliament’s draft on DRA had been amended, it reflected that the bureaucracy did not accept the devolution of powers in letter and spirit.
Winding up the debate on a motion moved by Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan of the MQM to discuss the health policy with a particular reference to registration and pricing of drugs, national health programmes and formation of DRA in light of 18th Amendment, Minister for Regulation and Services Firdous Ashiq Awan assured the members of the Upper House that the government would ensure provincial autonomy and no bureaucrat would be allowed to violate the government’s commitment to provincial autonomy.
The minister said the ministry would take into account the recommendations made by the House committee and the concerns expressed by the members were only based on speculations.
“I would take up the matter after consultation with the members and would also take them into confidence. Let me assure you that no legislation would be passed which would protect the interest of some specific individuals. I would not follow wishes of any specific bureaucrat,” she added.
She said the ministry would soon table a consensus legislation on DRA that had been renamed from drug regulatory authority to drug regulatory agency.
Earlier, members of opposition parties in the Senate criticised the recent statements by Minister for Defence Ahmed Mukhtar about the possibility of UN sanctions over the closure of NATO supply routes and asked the government to come up with a clear stance on the issue.
However, differences between both opposition parties widened as the PML-N members boycotted the proceedings of the Upper House, while the JUI-F members walked out and returned to the House when PPP Chief Whip Senator Islamuddin Shaikh persuaded them to call off their walkout.
Speaking on a point of order, PML-N Parliamentary Leader Raja Zafarul Haq referred to what he called confusing statements by the defence minister and pointed out that his recent statement had jeopardised the unanimous recommendations passed by the joint sitting of parliament.
“After the Salala attack, it was none other than the government which blocked the NATO supply route. Later, it also asked the parliament to fianlise its recommendations for new terms of engagements with the US and the prime minister had assured the parliament that its recommendations would be fully implemented. Now the same government is telling us that if supply routes are not opened, we can face UN sanctions,” he said. Haq said why did the government not know that closing NATO supplies was a violation of the UN charter and why was it changing its stance now.
“We condemn the twists and turns by the government on such a serious matter and in protest, we boycott the proceedings of this House,” he maintained.
Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F said the statements by the defence minister were creating confusion and they were not only a breach of parliament, but also brought a bad name to parliament’s unanimous resolutions.
Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) chief Mian Raza Rabbani informed the House that the committee had met in the morning and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had assured the meeting that the government would form its policy of new terms of engagements with the US in line with parliament’s recommendations.
