ISLAMABAD: Perhaps for the first time in the country’s parliamentary history, treasury members boycotted on Thursday the budget debate in Senate, over alleged misuse of rules by the deputy chairman.
It all began when Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq expressed annoyance over the decision of Deputy Chairman Sabir Baloch to refer a privilege motion filed by a PPP member to the relevant committee without seeking his opinion.
PPP Senator from Balochistan Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi had moved the privilege motion against the Islamabad police for lifting his car from outside his residence in the Parliament Lodges prior to the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday.
“You have referred the motion to the committee without asking us. Please follow the procedure and run the house according to the rules,” Mr Haq said. “What will happen if the referee starts scoring goals?”
The PML-N leader asked the deputy chairman to change his attitude if he wanted to enjoy the cooperation of the government in running the house.
Mr Baloch responded by saying he would not make any compromise on the prestige of senators. Quoting from the rules, he said that he was not bound to seek opinion of the leader of the house before referring any privilege motion to the committee.
“I don’t think I have done anything wrong,” he said, prompting a noisy protest from the treasury benches.
Mr Haq said that since the treasury members could not stage a walkout from the house, they would sit silently and wait for the chairman to return from abroad. The house also witnessed a brief verbal clash between Mr Baloch, who belongs to the opposition PPP, and parliamentary leader of the PML-N Mushahidullah Khan when the latter called for an apology from the chair.
Mr Baloch has been presiding over the Senate sittings in the absence of Chairman Nayyar Bokhari who is on an official visit to Nigeria.
Veteran PML-N member M. Hamza refused to take part in the budget debate when the deputy chairman gave him the floor.
Later, Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan attempted to solve the problem by offering to mediate on the matter, but his efforts proved futile because the treasury members refused to participate in the proceedings. Later, the deputy chairman adjourned the sitting till Friday morning.
Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2014