ISLAMABAD: The opposition members staged a walkout from the Senate on Thursday to register their protest over the recent hike in electricity tariff and criticised the government for not taking the parliament into confidence over the ongoing Afghan talks in Qatar.
Parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Raza Rabbani and Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q speaking on points of order regretted that they had come to know through the newspapers that Pakistan had played a key role in US-Taliban breakthrough whereas they had been kept in the dark on the issue.
Mr Rabbani was of the opinion that keeping in view the significance of the development and its direct impact on Pakistan’s integrity, it was the responsibility of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to either himself brief the house on the matter or nominate some federal minister to do so. He suggested that an in camera session could also be convened for such a briefing.
Both the PML-Q and the PPP senators asked Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq to give a commitment that the house would be briefed on the issue during the ongoing session, but he made no such commitment.
Mr Rabbani also flayed the government for an increase of Rs1.12 per unit in electricity tariff and said that it seemed the government planned a 70 per cent increase in the tariff as reported in the media. The MQM and the PML-Q senators joined the PPP members in their walkout announced by Mr Rabbani.
Meanwhile, speaking on a point of order, PPP’s Farhatullah Babar took strong exception to the remarks made by a Supreme Court judge during a hearing on the loadshedding issue on Wednesday that the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) had made the people beggars and that the funds should have been allocated to Wapda.
Mr Babar asked the judges “to respect their limits”, adding that remarks like these did not enhance the prestige and dignity of the courts.
“Dignity that is sought through coercive means and not through judgments and above-board conduct is fragile,” he added.
He said the BISP was passed unanimously by the previous parliament through an act and the Senate had passed a unanimous resolution in its support.
The new parliament and the new government had also decided to continue the programme, he said.