ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly speaker continued to be the target of opposition criticism for a second consecutive day, and even came under fire from his predecessor for failing to discharge his constitutional duty and soiling the good name of his august office.

“Once the speaker takes the oath of office — and it is preferable that they should resign from the membership of their party at that time — it is expected that they should run the house in a neutral manner,” said Fehmida Mirza, who became the first woman speaker of the National Assembly under the previous Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.

“I don’t need to remind the country how I ran the house. It didn’t matter that my leadership was unhappy with me; it didn’t matter that my cabinet and treasury colleagues objected and accused me of favouring the opposition and giving them more time on the floor. I [ran the house] according to a formula; let the minority have its say, let the majority have its way.”

“The government has the prerogative to introduce any business it wants, but the opposition should at least be allowed to criticise,” she explained and claimed that she tried her best to strengthen institutions rather than individuals.

PTI MNA claims PML-N has admitted that speaker’s office is partisan

She also recalled her detailed ruling on the matter of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s disqualification, and explained that parliament had passed a resolution in his favour and given him a vote of confidence.

She claimed that at the time, an SC official was trying to use “the speaker’s shoulder” to get the prime minister disqualified, and quoting from the Constitution, said that the speaker was bound to apply his/her own mind when deciding these matters.

“[The speaker’s office] is not simply a post office, that will write letters on direction,” she concluded, and opposition members thumped their desks in approval.

But at the same time, she advised critics of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to exercise caution. “As a former speaker, I have to stress that you must examine what the custodian of the house has written in his ruling before you can comment on its wisdom. As such, I cannot comment on his actions in my capacity as a former holder of that office,” she said.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Shafqat Mehmood kept badgering the speaker to allow him to speak, but Mr Sadiq told him to wait his turn, which finally came after PML-N’s Malik Pervaiz took over presiding duties.

“A lot of things Khawaja Asif says aren’t rooted in reality,” he mused, before pointing out that in his tirade a day earlier, the defence minister had actually conceded what his party had been saying: that the speaker was acting in a partisan manner.

“I had noted in my speech that whenever someone sits on the chair where you are right now, Mr Chairman, their status changes and they should not act in a partisan manner. The decision the speaker made yesterday was a biased one; it didn’t elevate the stature of this house, nor his own person.”

“But Khawaja Asif’s logic was unique — he maintained that Pakistan has no tradition of neutral speakers,” he continued, incredulously.

Mr Mehmood argued that the defence minister’s emphasis was on the fact that the speaker’s office had never been neutral. “What he was actually saying was that the speaker is the PML-N’s speaker, and, as such, any decision he makes will be in favour of his party.”

“I appreciate this logic, and want to emphasise that according to Mr Asif and the ruling party, the speaker’s office is not a non-partisan one and we should not expect any magnanimity or neutrality from him,” he said, sarcastically.

He then claimed that parliament was increasingly becoming irrelevant to the people because the issues being discussed there were not their issues. “Sometimes, we discuss heatwaves during the winter months — that is how out of touch we are.” This, he alleged, was all the ruling party’s doing.

“If you will make decisions that are discriminatory to the opposition, if you prevent us from participating in debates — this house will only further lose its importance,” he concluded.

Defence Day resolution

Opposition members also derided the government for failing to prepare a resolution befitting the occasion of Defence Day.

“Today is Sept 6. It is a historic day. On this day, our jawaans made the ultimate sacrifice and repulsed a powerful enemy like India... but we should also be mindful of what happened six years later, in 1971,” said Leader of the Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah, referring to the secession of Bangladesh.

Referring to the sense of deprivation that prevails among the smaller provinces, he reminded the government: “Some countries learn from this history; why can’t we? We are a federation; Balochistan is entitled to as much as Sindh gets and Sindh is entitled to the same as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

“On this day in 1965, it was our brave soldiers who saved the day. Today, that responsibility falls to us civilians; the decisions we make will go down in history,” he concluded.

PTI’s Shafqat Mehmood, PPP’s Shazia Marri and Fehmida Mirza, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Sheikh Salahuddin all called for a resolution to be passed to commemorate the sacrifices of the brave martyrs that defended the country’s frontiers.

However, no such resolution was introduced or passed by the house.

Published in Dawn September 7th, 2016