Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Members of opposition parties on Tuesday staged walkout from the Senate session over absence of concerned ministers during the question hour.
The opposition walked out of the Senate after pointing to quorum prompting the leader of the house to flay their gesture. The PML-N parliamentary leader Azam Nazeer Tarar said that concerned ministers not arrived in the session to give answers over questions concerned with their ministries. “It is inappropriate if single minister run the house,” Tarar said.
Pakistan People’s Party’s Senator Sherry Rehman claimed that it couldn’t happen in any government that a single minister stands and answer all questions. “If the government has to continue this practice, then the opposition will not sit with them and will hold its session outside,” Senator Rehman maintained.
“The Parliament has been made dysfunctional and unelected people are taking decisions,” Jamaat-e-Islami’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said, adding that “this practice will not be further tolerated”.
In absence of the opposition only eight senators from the treasury were present in the session. They continued the session and blasted the opposition in their fiery speeches. While the opposition senators staged walkout and went to the lobby.
Talking to media outside the house, Sherry Rehman said that the “House of the Parliament was degraded during the question hour. The opposition has decided that the reply of questions from single minister will not be acceptable,” she said. ”
The government now running the session without the opposition, which have no legal mandate,” PPP Senator said. Leader of the House in Senate Shahzad Waseem lashed out at the opposition saying sometimes they run from Senate and sometimes from the country as they only know this type of politics. Opposition’s politics is not based on public welfare but vested interests, he added. He said Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf and its allies stand together and they have full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
