ISLAMABAD: The treasury
benches have shot down an opposition move to make it mandatory for the
prime minister to attend a session of the lower house of parliament once
a week.
The Pakistan Peoples Party, the main opposition
group, proposed an amendment to the National Assembly’s rules saying the
prime minister should show up in the house on the first Wednesday of
every session to answer questions of lawmakers.National Assembly proceedings: Opposition questions government policies
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, however, defeated the amendment. “The prime minister is the chief executive of the country. He cannot be compelled to attend a session as he has to deal with many other administrative issues,” said Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad.
Syed Khursheed Shah, the leader of the opposition who belongs to the PPP, regretted the ‘dictatorial mindset’ of the treasury. “It was a good opportunity to give powers to the prime minister to appear before the house and reply to lawmakers’ questions,” he said after the amendment was shot down.
If the prime minister shows up at least once a week in the house, it will strengthen parliamentary democracy in the country, he said. At the same time, he regretted the PPP could not introduce this amendment during its previous tenure in power. However, he quickly added that back then the prime minister used to attend parliament’s sessions regularly.
The proposed amendment sought to empower the opposition leader to have precedence over other lawmakers when taking up the questions. “The provisions relating to questions shall apply mutatis-mutandis to the prime minister’s question time,” the resolution stated.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2016.
