ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan gave a dressing down to PML-N lawmakers on Monday for their lack of interest in proceedings of National Assembly.
Chaudhry Nisar who in the absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was chairing a meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee told the legislators to at least justify perks and privileges they received as MNAs by showing their presence in the house.
“Throughout the 30 years of my parliamentary career, I have never seen such blatant disinterest in the business of the house from a ruling party. We are majority party but people hardly turn up, which attracts criticism from the opposition benches,” a participant of the meeting quoted the minister as saying.
Chaudhry Nisar, who often fills in for the prime minister in the assembly to give policy statements, be it on drone attacks, ties with the US or national security, chastised the party lawmakers for ‘embarrassing the government’ before the opposition.
“Opposition benches are fully justified when they point out absence of our ministers and empty treasury benches and we can only respond to them by ensuring our attendance in the house,” he said.
And he didn’t stop there. He constituted a committee comprising senior Ministers Zahid Hamid, Barjees Tahir and Riaz Pirzada to monitor attendance of the party lawmakers in the assembly sessions.
The committee, he warned, would see which member spent how much time in the house through a computerised system.
A 20-member committee was recommended to oversee issues relating to legislation in the house.
The minister urged the members to come forward with new ideas to improve the participation of legislators in the daily business of the house.
He also had a tip for the lawmakers on how to get media attention. He advised them to come up with call-attention notices on issues of public importance.
Although no-one complained during the meeting, Chaudhry Nisar said he was aware of resentment permeating among party MNAs over lack of accommodation in the cabinet and on other assignments. “It’s entirely the prerogative of the prime minister so I have nothing to say on this.”
But some members did speak about their lack of interaction with the prime minister, unavailability of development funds and bureaucracy’s disrespect in Punjab which they said only listened to the Chief Minister’s House. According to one lawmaker, there should be a day exclusively for the prime minister’s meetings with his party’s legislators.
Complaining against district coordination officers in Punjab for their rude attitude towards public representatives, at least two members asked Chaudhry Nisar to convey their concerns to the Punjab government.
The interior minister promised to take up the issue with the CM, but also advised them not to get involved in petty issues.
On the issue of development funds for members of the National Assembly, he said this concern would be addressed soon.
He said he would advise the prime minister and the chief ministers of Punjab and Balochistan to personally attend to concerns of the lawmakers in the next parliamentary committee meeting of the party.
A senior lawmaker said if the party leaders were seriously concerned about the attendance the prime minister should himself start attending NA sessions. PM Sharif hasn’t come to the house since his election in June.
The member claimed that a majority of legislators of the party weren’t happy over cabinet portfolios which had largely been allocated to MNAs from Lahore and Gujranwala divisions and close family members.
“The party leadership must pay heed to the growing disenchantment within its rank and file before it’s too late.”