The opposition parties on Thursday welcomed a government proposal to form a committee that will prepare a code of conduct for members of the National Assembly.
Defence Minister Pervez Khattak informed the Lower House of parliament that it had been decided during a parliamentary party meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) that assembly proceedings would be run strictly in accordance with the rules and use of non-parliamentary language would be discouraged. He also proposed the formation of a committee comprising members from the treasury and opposition benches to devise a joint strategy for the smooth running of the House.
Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif, taking the floor of the assembly, welcomed the proposal, while regretting the use of unbecoming language by members from both sides of the aisle. He complained that some ministers were in the habit of leveling allegations without presenting any evidence to back their claims with. He said the use of abusive language by members of the parliament was creating an air of despondency among the people.
“For the past few days, we have turned this House into a fish market,” he said.”If we want respect for this House, we should use parliamentary language and our conversation should be based on facts. We should talk on national issues instead of wasting time,” he added.
Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Raja Pervez Ashraf also supported the idea.He said by using unbecoming language, members of the House were only ridiculing themselves.
He pointed out that the House has been unable to complete debate on the economic conditions of the country, which has been on the assembly agenda for the past one week.
Earlier during the question hour, the House once again saw the treasury and opposition benches coming to verbal blows after Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry accused the previous two governments of destroying every institution in the country.
Fawad said institutions under his ministry could not be run as was being done in the past, adding that billions of rupees were spent on institutions that were running in losses.”We will bring the biggest reforms to improve working of the institutions,” he said, adding that 163,000 persons were inducted in the public sector institutions by a previous government which led to their present precarious situation.
The minister said concerted efforts would be made to reform the institutions and bring them out of the mess created by the previous governments. He said the government will revive the institutions which were plundered in the past. He said civilized countries do not have any red zones and all the buildings are utilized according to their maximum potential and the same will be done in Pakistan.
Published in Daily Times, November 9th 2018.
