ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on
Friday took serious notice of what he called the ‘poor response’ of the
bureaucracy to the queries of legislators. He grilled Minister of State
for Interior Talal Chaudhry for ignoring questions related to his
ministry.
Mr Sadiq ordered two senior officials of the
interior ministry to leave the house and summoned the interior secretary
in his chamber. “Ministries do not reply to questions of the National
Assembly. I cannot run the house in this way. I have to take action
against someone if this attitude is not rectified,” the speaker said.
He
said he had been observing for a long time that replies were not coming
from the ministries and relevant departments. “Please look into the
behaviour of the bureaucracy,” he asked the treasury members.
The
speaker expressed displeasure over the interior ministry’s inability to
reply to questions raised by legislators as 80 per cent of the
questions related to the ministry were not answered.
When
the speaker asked who was representing the interior ministry in the
house, a section officer and a joint secretary stood up from their seats
in the visitors’ gallery and said they were representing the ministry
because of the absence of Interior Secretary Arshad Mirza. The speaker
ordered them to leave the house immediately and summoned the interior
secretary in his chamber.
Should the interior ministry
be asked to bear the expenses of the assembly’s Friday session because
the legislators who had travelled to the capital from far-flung areas to
attend the assembly’s session did not receive answers of their
questions from its officials, Mr Sadiq asked.
On this
State Minister Talal Chaudhry tried to defend his ministry, saying that
more than 80pc of the questions concerning his ministry had been
answered.
Talking about the Faizabad sit-in, the
minister said police had used only tear gas to disperse the protesters.
But, he added, the police would go for other options “if anyone will try
to attack Islamabad in future”.
Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf member Shireen Mazari asked speaker to handle the
bureaucracy in a strict manner, saying that she had also been observing
the poor response of government officials for the past few weeks. “This
is happening again and again,” she added.
There were 82
questions on the order of the day on Friday, of which 46 were not
answered. More than 80pc of the queries were not replied, which related
to law and order, private housing societies, water supply, Islamabad
Safe City Project, toll collection, mosques and seminaries, health,
weekly bazaars, land issues, police, human trafficking, smuggling from
Afghanistan and national park areas.
Pakistan Peoples
Party member Nafisa Shah said that not only government officials but
also ministers had been skipping NA sessions for some time. “Only one
minister attended the session today and he too left the house in the
middle,” she added.
Ms Shah said the agreement signed
between the government and the leadership of Faizabad protesters had
demoralised the police force. She demanded a comprehensive debate on the
issue during the current session of the assembly.
Another
PTI member, Shehryar Khan Afridi, raised objection on multi-billion
rupee Islamabad Safe City Project under which CCTV cameras were
installed at different roads in the federal capital.
The
state minister said the government had inherited the faulty project
from the previous government. But, he added, the project could not be
thrown away. “We are trying to improve the system.”
It
was also observed that a number of questions related to the finance
ministry had also not been answered as the question hour was based on
questions of only two ministries — interior and finance.
After
conclusion of the question hour, the NA could proceed only for 10
minutes as a PPP member, Dr Shazia Sobia, pointed out the lack of quorum
and the session was adjourned till 3pm on Monday.
