ISLAMABAD - The 30th National Assembly prorogued yesterday without discussing controversial departure of former President Pervez Musharraf, which was taken up in joint sitting of parliament to thoroughly debate the issue current regular session of the lower house.
The house, which was supposed to brief about departure of former President Pervez Musharraf by Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar, had not witnessed even a single sentence by the member of opposition and treasury.
Interestingly, Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar also remained absent in last two days of current National Assembly session.
Nisar, on the repeated queries of opposition, had promised to share each and every detail about departure of former military dictator.
The house, with the thin presence of lawmakers from both sides, dramatically ended (prorogued) due to lack of quorum pointed out by PTI’s lawmaker Shireen Mazari. The government side attempted to introduce the Election Commission Bill, 2016 (salary, allowances, perks and privileges), by taking advantage of its numerical strength.
PTI’s Shireen Mazari, taking the floor, strongly opposed the bill and pointed out quorum sensing the government’s intentions to bulldoze it.
Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbai conducted counting and prorogued the house due to absence of required strength in the house. The bill was introduced by Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Afzal.
Earlier, responding to a calling attention notice moved by Dr Nafisa Shah about failure of the Tax Amnesty Scheme to draw traders to file their income tax returns, Parliamentary Secretary told the House that so far 5,754 traders have joined the tax net under Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme. “They have paid 548 million rupees tax,” he said, adding that the last date for filing the tax returns under the scheme is 31st of this month. The parliamentary secretary said number of traders paid tax under the scheme is smaller than the government expected.
Responding to another calling attention notice, Minister of State for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnat Shah told the House that Pakistan extends maximum facilities to the Hindu and Sikh Yatrees come from India and other parts of the world for performing their rituals.