ISLAMABAD - As many as 78 MNAs mainly from the treasury benches missed the whole 38th National Assembly session (spanned over a week), exposing their commitment to the legislative business of parliament.
The Panama Leaks controversy mainly dominated the year’s last session of the Lower House, as the four-day session did not touch any other item on the agenda.
Even the last sitting of the house, due to abrupt prorogation of the session, one day before advisory committee’s decision, could not discuss the Quetta Inquiry Commission Report and the plane crash tragedy.
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq almost in everyday sitting made an attempt to conduct debate on the aircraft crash but ‘Panamagate’, despite being a subjudice matter, consumed around 80 per cent of the house’s time.
Mainly Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf(PTI) took the lead to seemingly force the chair to debate Panamagate, as its party members demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to explain his position regarding contradictory stance on the Panama Leaks on the floor of the house.
Like PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also submitted a privilege motion in the house against prime minister’s statement demanding to refer this matter to the concerned committee. But, the chair rejected the motions of both opposition parties.
The last session of the lower house also witnessed one of the worst kind of rumpus in the house, as PTI’s MNAs in a protest tore apart copies of question-hour and kept throwing it in the air. The chair even on the last day of the session seemingly avoiding further discussion on ‘Panama controversy’ abruptly prorogued the house.
Although some of the lawmakers would be on a genuine leave due to personal reasons, over 75 MNAs did not bother to grace the house.
The disinterest level could be gauged from the fact that 44 MNAs from PML-N out of 75 had not attended the session. Thirteen from PPP, five from MQM, four each from PTI and PML-F did not turn up in the session. Likewise, one from PkMAP, one from JUI-F and one Independent member did not come in the house, according to the figures compiled by FAFEN, available to The Nation.
The names of lawmakers, who did not attend the session, are Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PTI chief Imran Khan, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Abdul Kareem, Abdul Rahim Mandokhail, Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju, Alam Dad Laleka, Ali Gohar Khan Mahar, Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar, Begum Majeeda Wyne , Ch Abid Raza, Ch Bilal Ahmed Virk, Ch Jaffar Iqbal, Ch Khalid Javed Warraich, Ch Muhammad Shahbaz, Ch Nadeem Abbas Rebera, Ch Parvez Elahi, Ch. Tariq Bashir Cheema, Dr Asma Mamdot, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Dr Hafeez Ur Rehman Khan, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar, Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, Faryal Talpur, Fazal-Ur-Rehman, Ghous Bux Khan Mahar, Ghulam Rabani Khar, Imran Khan, Jam Kamal Khan, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Khalid Hussain Magsi, Khial Zaman, Khwaja Ghulam Rasool Koreja, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Makhdoom Syed Ali Hassan Gillani, Makhdoom Syed Mustafa Mehmood, Syed Basit Ahmad Sultan Bokhari, Malik Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, Malik Asad Sikandar, Malik Sultan Mehmood, Mian Muhammad Farooq, Mir Aamir Ali Khan Magsi, Mir Dostain Khan Domki, Mir Munawar Ali Talpur, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Mohammad Ayaz Soomro, Muhammad Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, Najaf Abbas Sial, Nawabzada Mazher Ali, Phyllis Azeem, Pir Bux Junejo, Pir Noor Muhammad Shah Jeelani, Rafique Ahmed Jamali, Rana Zahid Hussain Khan, Reeta Ishwar, Rida Khan, Saeed Ahmad Khan Manais, Sahibzada Muhammad Nazir Sultan, Sajid Nawaz, Sardar Ashiq Hussain Khan Gopang, Sardar Mansab Ali Dogar, Sardar Muhammad Arshad Khan Laghari, Sardar Muhammad Jafar Khan Leghari, Sardar Mumtaz Khan , Shah Jee Gul Afridi, Shazadi Umarzadi Tiwana, Shehryar Afridi, Sheikh Fayyaz Ud Din, Sufyan Yousuf, Syed Ali Raza Abidi, Syed Muhammad Asghar Shah, Syed Qazim Ali Shah, Tahir Bashir Cheema, Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry, Tahmina Daultana, and Tariq Christopher Qaiser.
These lawmakers from this month would also draw increased salaries.