Not in the best of parliamentary traditions
A perception is slowly gaining ground that the PML-N government treats the parliament nonchalantly. The recent episode in the senate is just an illustration of the mindset. While the opposition was protesting against what it called incorrect figures relating to civilian deaths in terrorist incidents, two more complaints emerged regarding incorrect replies to the Senators’ questions, one from PML-N Senator M Hamza and the other from the MQM Senator Tahir Mashhadi. Federal Minister Birjees Tahir conceded that the reply in one case was incorrect. In the second instance, Sen. Hamza’s stand was vindicated by two other Senators.
No cabinet member, least of all the interior minister who claims he will fight till his ‘last breath in the defence of truth’ is supposed to act as a letter box. The ministers have to apply their mind on the raw information supplied to them by bureaucracy before presenting it before the parliament as official truth. In the case of Ch Nisar, the figure of 136 mortalities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since June was patently incorrect as in September alone 125 people died in four terrorist attacks in Peshawar, including the one on All Saints Church and the other on Qissa Khwani Bazaar. What is more the inflexible and imperious attitude of some of the ministers adds fire to the fuel. Instead of agreeing to withdraw the information, as demanded by the opposition, Nisar insisted it was supplied by a government department. The attitude forced the protesting opposition to hold the Senate session in the open air at the grounds of Parliament House on Wednesday.
The disregard for parliament is not confined to Ch Nisar alone. On Tuesday, leader of the opposition Khurshid Shah and PTI’s Shah Mahmud Qureshi called upon the prime minister to attend the session and brief lawmakers about the outcome of his visit to the United States last month and the situation following the drone attack last week. Nawaz Sharif, who holds the additional portfolios of defence and foreign affairs, seldom attends the NA session with other ministers following suit. Sometime there is none to furnish replies to the members’ queries. Out of five months that he has been in power, Sharif has spent one on foreign tours. This has led to delay in the constitution of parliamentary committees and the elections of their chairpersons, causing hindrance in the presentation of parliamentary bills. The continuous absence of the prime minister from NA sessions does not promote good parliamentary traditions.
