ISLAMABAD - The second wave of Covid-19 that has set alarm bells ringing with ever-increasing positivity rate of infections and the hospitals are close to reaching their capacity has also hit hard business of the both the houses of the parliament.
Unlike the first wave of coronavirus during last summer, the government has so far avoided to impose complete lockdown by closing business activities, markets and transport services. However, the parliamentary business—parliament’s sessions and meetings of the parliamentary committees— has almost come to a standstill with the exception of few committee of the National Assembly that have met in the last couple of weeks.
The Senate has not met for the last one month while similar situation persists when it comes to the session of the National Assembly. According to the provisional parliamentary calendar of NA, the house had to meet twice in November but it could not meet for a single time due to the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases.
With the approval of Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, all meetings of house committees—standing, functional and special— of the Senate have been postponed till further orders since November 3.
The parliamentary experts view that forum of the parliament was very significant in any democracy with having its both roles of legislature and oversight over the executive and other state institutions. They say that the role of the parliament enhances in the time of pandemics, disasters, and natural calamities and the duration and frequency of its sessions and committees increases during such difficult times. They have urged that “virtual or hybrid” sessions and committees of the parliament could be summoned during the outbreak of Covid-19.
Earlier this year during the first wave of Covid-19 in the country, the senior lawmakers in the Senate had urged the government that the parliamentary business should not come to halt despite the high positivity rate of infections. Former chairman Senate and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Mian Raza Rabbani had been urging the government that parliamentary sessions should meet with strict precautionary measures as parliaments of the world, according to the best international practices, continue to work with all difficulties, be it natural disasters, calamities or pandemics.
However, Pakistan’s parliament is hit with a problem that rules of business of its both houses, Senate and NA, allow only physical presence of the members in the sessions and house committees. The experts suggest that the parliament should amended its rules of procedure to summon “virtual or hybrid sessions” because the deadly virus would continue to haunt the country for more than a year or two.
In April this year during the first wave, the Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges had ruled out the possibility of summoning virtual session of the Upper House while terming the proposal an “unconstitutional step.” The committee had observed that the Constitution didn’t provide for holding a virtual session of the parliament.
In the same month, the parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the NA also rejected the proposal of holding a virtual session of the assembly and agreed that the government should convene a physical session in a routine manner.
“Keeping in view the international parliamentary practice, the virtual or hybrid sessions of the parliament in Pakistan could be summoned during this pandemic,” Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of PILDAT (Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency), an Islamabad-based think tank, told The Nation in an interview. He said that many parliaments of the world have amended their rules to summon either virtual or hybrid sessions during this pandemic. “The frequency and duration of the committees of the parliament especially increases during such difficult times because of having their oversight role.” Mehboob said that the parliaments of the world have incorporated technology to continue with their work without any break. About summoning the hybrid sessions of parliament and its committees, he explained that one-fourth of the members physically come in such sessions while half members out of the third-fourth ensure their virtual presence in each session. “Hybrid system is the evolving standard of the parliaments of world,” he said.
The president PILDAT, however, said that the opposition parties in Pakistan earlier had rejected the proposal of summoning virtual sessions of the parliament thinking that it would not be able to give tough time to the government in virtual sessions as it usually used to do in physical sessions. He said that the parliament’s oversight role over actions of government to deal with coronavirus had so far remained invisible in Pakistan.
Earlier this week, the opposition parties boycotted a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus that was summoned by the speaker NA to discuss “matters relating to the session of the National Assembly due to Covid-19.”
“Out parliament neither had foreseen this problem during the first wave nor did it prepare itself for another such situation (wave),” said Muddassir Rizvi, head of programs of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN)—a non-government organization. He said that parliament has had a central role in the situation of pandemic.
“Parliament should always in-session during such difficult time,” Rizvi said adding that the parliament should immediately amend its “rules of procedure and conduct of business” to summon virtual sessions. “We cannot afford shutting down the parliament,” he asserted.