AFTER prolonged discussions and differences on the is
sue, the Government and the Opposition, on Tuesday,
agreed to convene special session of the National Assembly on 11 May to discuss the situation arising out of COVID-19. The agreement came on the heels of a move by the Opposition to requisition a session of the House, which was ultimately withdrawn.
Pakistan is a parliamentary democracy but unfortunately the relevance of Parliament was relegated in the absence of lead role that it was supposed to play in the given situation. No doubt, the indecisiveness and delay had something to do with the safety aspect in view of rapid spread of Coronavirus and accompanying restrictions on movement, a situation that continues to-date but now special procedures have been evolved to take care of those concerns and hiccups. However, we believe that non-convening of the session on the pretext of safety of members and others concerned was not a prudent approach when medical professionals, judges and personnel of armed forces and police were there to perform their functions. Dangers and risks should not have deterred parliamentarians from performing their responsibility during this critical juncture. The risks are always there for everyone and the SOPs evolved by the Parliamentary Committee clearly show the way out in such situations. Otherwise too, there was hardly any justification not to convene the session now when there is thinking that the lockdown was manipulated by the elite as reluctance to summon the session created an impression of concern for the elite. Anyhow, now that the session is being summoned, it is hoped that the parliamentarians from both sides would shun the tendency of indulging in blame game and instead come out with concrete and workable proposals to deal with the current situation and how best to proceed ahead in future. As for numbers of the members who would be attending the session, this has been left to the discretion of the parliamentary leadership and they ought to nominate the best brains and vocal members to represent them so that meaningful debate takes place leading to firm proposals that could serve as input for decision-makers.
