Treasury, opposition hold separate Senate sessions

In an unprecedented development in the country’s parliamentary history, the treasury and the opposition held separate sessions of the Senate on Wednesday.
The PPP-led opposition held a mock session on the lawns of the parliament house to press the interior minister to withdraw statistics pertaining to civilian casualties.
The event, what the treasury benches called an unconstitutional session, entertained people, including the drivers of the lawmakers, security officials and the National Assembly and Senate Secretariat staff.
However, it could do little to make Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan bow to the political pressure of the opposition as he remained unmoved on the question of withdrawing the statistics.
An opposition member presided over the proceedings as the opposition members sat on the ground and a few on chairs. A portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also displayed behind the chair of the presiding officer. The proceedings started with the recitation of verses from the holy Quran and copies of the orders of the day were also distributed among the members.
The protesting members criticised the interior minister most of the time. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar demanded that the interior minister resign.
Addressing the mock session, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said that the Parliament House has been made hostage by one individual (Chaudhry Nisar). He said the state was trying to suppress them by using power. He also said they would continue their struggle to uphold parliamentary traditions. The senator said that giving a wrong answer in parliament was tantamount to desecrating the House. The opposition wanted Nisar to retract his statement but he made it an ego issue, although the Foreign Office and the Defence Ministry also termed it fallacious, he added. During the ‘session’ Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Minister, Abid Sher Ali reached there and tried to persuade the opposition members. He said he wanted to respond to their queries, but inside the chamber as he termed the ongoing proceedings illegal and unconstitutional. However, he left after the opposition members shouted “shame”, “shame”.
Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari said that having a session for the sake of session meant nothing. He lamented, “If we cannot resolve our own problems what nation would expect from us.”
Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq informed the House that the ‘reconciliation’ committee held a couple of meetings with opposition members‚ however‚ they decided to carry on their protest. He said the treasury members were still making efforts to bring the opposition back to the House.
Speaking on a point of order, Senator Hasil Bizenjo requested the chairman to play his role in bringing the opposition back. PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah criticised the opposition’s attitude and said the chairman should take notice of ‘illegal proceedings’. He feared that tomorrow half of the members may hold session in Larkana and the rest may assemble in Lahore in the name of session if the practice continued. He said the circumstances have reached a point where the chairman should give a ruling.
JUI-F Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri urged the opposition not to go to that extent from where the things get further worse. MQM Senator Tahir Mashhadi termed the opposition meeting a mock session and added that the stalemate was the product of war of egos.
Senator Jafar Iqbal termed the opposition session in violation of Rule 3 as he maintained that only the president could summon the session. He wanted the chairman to give ruling on the legal position of the opposition’s session, but the chairman adjourned the session.
The session started with a delay of around two hours and met for only 46 minutes before it was adjourned to meet again on Thursday (today) with a hope that the opposition would end the boycott.
The leader of the House attended the proceedings for 10 minutes only and left the House to undertake another effort to bring the opposition back in the House but did not return back before the House was adjourned.