PML-N’s disregard for Parliament
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq preferred to visit the Prime Minister’s office to discuss ‘matters pertaining to parliamentary affairs’ instead of presiding over the National Assembly session on the very first day after being sworn in. A Speaker is the guardian of the House and is therefore supposed to be above party affiliations. In case he continues to identify himself with a party, his moral authority is likely to be compromised.
Soon after the NA met after a delay of three months, a ruling party MNA from FATA announced his resignation as a protest against the failure of the government to pay attention to the recommendations of the FATA MNAs regarding the IDPs. A prominent government ally from Balochistan complained that the ruling party continued to neglect the NA, pointing out that not a single minister or advisor was present in the House. He complained that while important decisions were being taken on internal and external policies, the House had not been taken into confidence. Finding the front rows empty a second day in succession on Tuesday, the Leader of the Opposition maintained that it betrayed a lack of interest in the proceedings on the part of the ministers and the PML-N lawmakers. He told the Speaker that he was not asking for a counting because he wanted the proceedings to continue.
After consuming half of its tenure the government still gives little importance to the National Assembly. It remains confident that whatever decisions are taken by the party leadership would be endorsed by the majority of MNAs comprising party loyalists and therefore it need not take the Opposition on board. This type of foolhardiness had proved to be the undoing of the PML-N administration in 1999 when its government was overthrown despite its much-flouted ‘big mandate’. The government must not forget that but for support from the Opposition it would have been sent home in September last year. The government would be shooting itself in the foot if it continued to ignore the Parliament.
