Govt bulldozes four bills through NA amid fury
ISLAMABAD
The National Assembly proceedings on Monday turned chaotic as the government rammed through four bills in a controversial manner amidst vociferous protests from the opposition, which accused the ruling coalition of bypassing democratic norms and stifling debate.
The tumultuous sitting saw Energy Minister Awais Leghari facing the wrath of both treasury and opposition members over the ongoing power outages and loadshedding issues, with the minister conceding that power companies and its officials had been inefficient in addressing the problem.
At the outset of the sitting, the opposition members belonging to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) staged a token walkout against the Punjab police for allegedly preventing opposition leader in NA Omar Ayub Khan and some MNAs from entering premises of an anti-terrorist court (ATC) in Sargodha, which resulted in the cancellation of Mr Khan’s bail.
The opposition members gathered in front of the dais of the speaker and raised full-throated slogans and tore apart the copies of the bills and agenda, as Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah allowed Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar to put the motions for the passage of four bills which had been approved by incomplete and ad hoc standing committees formed by the speaker.
The house passed the bills after suspending the rules, which allowed the members two-day time to suggest amendments to the bills.
The bills passed by the assembly were the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Pakistan Postal Services Management Board (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the National Highway Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023. All these bills had already been promulgated by the caretaker government through ordinances.
Chief whip of the SIC Aamir Dogar later protested over what he called bulldozing the legislation and called the present government as well as the assembly as “fake”.
