ISLAMABAD - National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has constituted council of senior parliamentarians to promote democratic and parliamentary norms across the party divide line.
The purpose to form the council of senior parliamentarians is to maintain parliamentary norms in the National Assembly proceedings, as the House had witnessed use of non-parliamentary language and misconduct by lawmakers from both sides.
The TORs of the council include promotion of established parliamentary norms and to encourage the Young Parliamentarians to participate in the proceedings of the House. The council would also ensure issue based debate and avoidance of any sexist, religious or ethnic slogans during the proceedings of the House.
The council would also guide and assist the Chair in implementing the democratic established norms in the House. National Assembly Secretariat has issued notification of the Council of Senior Parliamentarians. Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser would chair the Council and the Secretary National Assembly Tahir Hussain is the Secretary of the Council. MNAs Syed Fakhar Iman, Shafqat Mahmodd, Pervaiz Khattak, Dr.Fehmida Mirza, Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddique,Mr. Khalid Hussain Magsi, Ch Tariq Bashir Cheema, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Ch. Mahmood Bashir Virk, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Aftab Shaban Mirani, Shahida Akhtar Ali, SardarAkhar Mengal are the members of the council.
The Speaker National Assembly had recently taken notice over the misconduct, use of insulting language by MNAs from Treasury and Opposition. The chair had also served show-cause notice to the lawmakers over their misconduct.
The National Assembly Secretariat had also issued a letter to PPP-P MNA from Karachi Agha Rafiullah for uttering insulting words during a session of the Assembly on February 2. “A letter under Rule- 21 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, has been issued to Agha Rafiullah on using insulting remarks during the Assembly proceedings on 2nd Feb,” says an official announcement by the National Assembly Secretariat. Speaker Asad Qaiser had directed seeking explanation on a written complaint of MNA Begum Shaheen Saifullah Toru.
As lady MNA has requested for disciplinary action in accordance with relevant provisions of prescribed rules. She, in her application, mentioned that this insulting attitude would promote a bad culture in the Parliament.
Parliamentary sources said that all the lawmakers have submitted their reply to the National Assembly secretariat. The purpose of the council is to avoid such incident in future.