Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Wednesday suspended the House proceedings shortly after the session began due to the absence of parliamentarians and non-submission of replies to queries.
“I cannot run the House business in such an environment,” the speaker observed and suspended the proceeding for 15 minutes when he found out that no one was available to represent Ministries of Defence and Human Rights during the question-answer session. Sadiq was irked observing that a question related to the Ministry of Defence had been pending for the last three sessions and a reply could not be sought even today. The Speaker summoned the Minister and Secretary Defence in his chamber. He also asked the concerned to call the Secretary Human Rights and kept her standing in the gallery stating, “I will not allow her to sit.”
Naveed Qamar of PPP requested the Speaker to suspend the proceeding after fifteen minutes of the session’s commencement.
The Speaker said, “should I keep you and the Parliament hostage for the incompetent people who do not come to attend the House proceeding.”
Later, after a suspension of 15-minutes, the House proceedings resumed for the question-answer session.