Sanjrani for Senate panels to work via video link

Tue, April 14, 2020

ISLAMABAD: Following in the footsteps of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani is also considering making house committees functional through video conferencing as part of safety measures due to spread of Covid-19.

According to a spokesman for the Senate Secretariat, Mr Sanjrani on Monday held a meeting with his staff and directed the IT (information technology) department to present him a report within two days regarding arrangements for holding the meetings of the committees through a video link.

In the meanwhile, the Senate chairman has also convened a meeting of the House Business Advisory Committee comprising parliamentary leaders of the parties on Wednesday through a video link to consult them on the proposal and to discuss the prevailing situation in the country after the spread of coronavirus.

Last week, parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the Senate Sherry Rehman had called for convening parliament sessions in extraordinary times like the current coronavirus emergency, stating that “parliament’s urgent role of scrutinising the government, authorising spending, making laws and providing leadership during these testing times cannot be pushed aside”.

She had appealed to the Senate chairman and the NA speaker to take this task into their hands as parliaments all over the world could not be exempt from exploring urgent innovations to conduct crucial business.

The Senate Secretariat has already issued a one-point agenda for the meeting of the House Business Advisory Committee to be held at 3pm for a “discussion on the current Covid-19 situation”. Later, the Senate Secretariat issued another notice through which the chairman allowed any senator to participate in the meeting.

Both Mr Sanjrani and Mr Qaiser had last month cancelled all meetings of the committees of the two houses till further order as part of the measures taken by the government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

The directives to cancel the meetings had been issued by the speaker 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 the meetings of all the standing and functional committees even before the NSC meeting.

The speaker’s decision affected the meetings of 25 committees that were scheduled be held from March 16 to 31. Similarly, the Senate chairman cancelled the meetings of 18 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 Leader of the Opposition and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif as chairman of the all-powerful Public Accounts Committee.

The House Business Advisory Committee comprises Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala, Leader of the House in the Senate Shibli Faraz, Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq, Azam Swati and Sajjad Turi of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Mushahidullah Khan (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz), Sherry Rehman (Pakistan Peoples Party), Muhammad Ali Saif (Muttahida Qaumi Movement), Hasil Bizenjo (National Party), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri (Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F), Usman Kakar (Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party), Sirajul Haq (Jamaat-i-Islami), Sitara Ayaz (Awami National Party), Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini (Balochistan National Party), Muzaffar Hussain Shah (PML-F), Anwarul Haq Kakar (Balochistan Awami Party) and Aurangzeb Khan (independent).

Meanwhile, the official website of the Senate shows that a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Less Developed Areas is scheduled to be held on April 21 at 10.30am.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2020

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