Members of the Upper House on Friday witnessed an interesting debate between Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Leader of the House Jahangir Badr over responsibility for absence of senior bureaucrats and ministers in the Senate question hour.
The Senate chairman and leader of the House kept shifting responsibility on each other for ensuring presence of ministers and senior bureaucrats to respond to questions asked by the members.
Responding to a supplementary question by Abdul Haseeb Khan, Jahangir Badr informed the chair that he wanted to respond to the query but he had not been briefed by Cabinet Division officials.
“The officials were asked to brief me for answering the questions but they did not appear for briefing. If they don’t come in the future, we will issue summons,” Badr said.
Bokhari, however, intervened and said it was unfortunate to note that the officials of the ministry concerned did not appear for briefing. He asked Badr that since he was representing the prime minister in the House, he should arrange a meeting with the prime minister and request him to ensure proper briefing to him or any concerned minister enabling him to respond to the questions.
“This is not an insult of the leader of the House if this is understood that the officers are not answerable to this august House and the executive authority. Rather, this is disrespect to the entire House,” Badr added.
Bokhari asked Badar why had he accepted responsibility for answering questions if he was not briefed.
“Sir you are the custodian of the House. You should take responsibility and put your foot down. When Zahid Khan issued warrants of an officer, your secretariat had withheld the same. This might happen that I issue warrants of any federal secretary or equivalent, but am asked to stop the process,” Badr said.
Bokhari asked Badr to take responsibility as he represented the PM. “Why do you want to shift the responsibility of the executive to me,” he argued.
WALKOUT:
The debate prompted a walkout by the Awami National Party (ANP) senators.
Senator Zahid Khan said he had issued warrants for KESC official but they were dumped by the Senate chairman’s secretariat. He informed the chairman that the Senate standing committee on information technology’s delegation would call on the chair at 2pm to resolve the matter. However, the chairman said that he was preoccupied and could not meet the delegation. He asked to reschedule the meeting for some another day. This prompted the ANP Senators to stage a walkout.
Responding to a question earlier, Minister of State for Finance Salim Mandviwala informed the members of the Upper House of parliament that the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) had taken punitive action against cartelisation in the country.
Responding to a supplementary question by Col (r) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, the state minister said a fine of Rs 6.5 billion had been imposed on the Cement Manufacturers Association for increasing prices of cement without any valid reason through cartelisation.
He said due to the action by the CCP, the prices of the cement had been decreased.
“Likewise, the CCP imposed a fine of Rs 6.3 billion against Jute Mills Association while a Rs 50 million fine had been imposed on Ghee Mills Association for increasing prices of the commodities without any rational. Moreover, a fine of Rs 50 million had been imposed on auto-teller machines’ body for fleecing consumers and following the fine, several banks had decided to drop charges for consumers,” he added. He said the CCP had also imposed fine on the poultry association.
In a written reply, the finance minister said the CCP was required to ensure free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity to enhance economic efficiency and to protect consumers from anti-competitive behaviour.