November 17, 2021
A ruckus broke out in the National Assembly during Wednesday's joint Parliament session when Advisor to Prime Minister Babar Awan presented item no 3 on the list of the day's orders.
Item number three, according to the NA website, is as under:
"Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs to move that the Bill further to amend the Elections Act, 2017 [The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021], be passed."
The Opposition MNAs demanded the NA speaker let PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari speak, with some of them gathering around the speaker’s rostrum.
At one point, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser and PPP MNA Abdul Qadir Mandokhail engaged in an argument which was followed by the speaker’s warning for the MNA to speak courteously.
However, when Mandokhail didn’t pay heed to the warning, the speaker directed security to escort Mandokhail out of Parliament.
“Stay within your limits; I suspend you [from the session]” said Qaiser while addressing Mandokhail.
“Get him out,” he told the security.
Qaiser asked Bilawal to take notice of the “way” his MNA behaved.
“This is not the way to talk to a speaker,” he said.
The government passed several bills in a joint sitting of the Parliament on Wednesday, with the Opposition rejecting the legislation, saying that the treasury benches had bulldozed the bills.
The government successfully passed amendments to the Elections Act, 2017, allowing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote in general elections.
Voting on the amendments was earlier deferred — after strong protest by the Opposition — at Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan's request, but the government, after a while put it to vote again.
Following the passing of the bills, the Opposition staged a walkout, saying that National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser was not paying heed to their reservations regarding the government possessing fewer than the required numbers to get the bills passed.
According to the orders of the day shared on the National Assembly website, 60 items are on the agenda. The session is currently underway with the Opposition members back in the House ahead of a speech by the prime minister.