Speaker allows NA committees’ meetings through video link

Sun, April 12, 2020

ISLAMABAD: Almost one month after his decision to cancel all meetings of the National Assembly committees amid criticism from opposition parties and other sections of society for making parliament redundant during the coronavirus crisis, Speaker Asad Qaiser has allowed holding of meetings of the committees through video link.

According to a spokesman for the National Assembly Secretariat here on Saturday, the speaker had directed the secretariat staff to make special arrangements for holding of meetings of committees through video conferencing.

The decision by the speaker, he said, had come in order to revive the non-legislative business of the National Assembly. This decision would facilitate standing committees, Public Accounts Committee and special committees to hold meetings through video conferencing.

The Information Technology Wing of the National Assembly Secretariat has been mandated to provide video conferencing facilities in the committee rooms of the Parliament House, he said, adding that the decision of holding meetings through the video conferencing had been taken in view of the threat of spread of Covid-19 disease.

Mr Qaiser cancelled all meetings of the house committees till further order on March 14 as part of measures taken by the government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

The directives to cancel the meetings had been issued a day after the first meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, which had taken a number of decisions, including closure of educational institutions and a ban on all kinds of public gatherings.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanj­rani had cancelled meetings of all standing and functional committees even before the NSC meeting.

The speaker’s decision affected meetings of 25 committees that were scheduled to be held from March 16 to March 31. Similarly, the Senate chairman cancelled meetings of 18 various committees which were scheduled to be held between March 16 and 26.

At present, more than 150 government and private members’ bills are pending before various NA committees which had been constituted very late by the speaker due to a row between the government and the opposition over the nomination of the Opposition Leader and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif as chairman of the all-powerful Public Accounts Committee.

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