ISLAMABAD: Maiden meeting of the newly-constituted Senior Parliamentarians Council (SPC) will be held on March 22 to take up the incident of the opposition members’ manhandling by activists of the ruling party outside the Parliament House on March 6.

“National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has convened the maiden meeting of the SPC in Parliament House on March 22. The meeting of the council will be held under the convenership of Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam to consider the incident of misbehaviour with members of the National Assembly in front of Parliament House on March 6,” says an official announcement by the National Assembly Secretariat here on Tuesday.

It says that letters had already been sent by the National Assembly Secretariat to members of the council belonging to the treasury and opposition parties.

The 15-member bipartisan SPC was set up by the speaker on March 10 with a nine-point Terms of Reference (ToR), including promotion of parliamentary traditions based on mutual respect, rather than political affiliation and ensuring prevention of any untoward incident in the premises of the National Assembly and Parliament House and ensuring respect and adherence to rulings given by the chair while maintaining democratic values beyond political segregation”.

The speaker had last week referred the March 6 incident to the SPC for a probe for unearthing facts which led to the misbehaviour with members of National Assembly.

The council headed by the speaker himself is required to submit its report within 15 days.

The speaker has convened the meeting despite the fact the opposition is yet to decide whether or not it should become a part of the council.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) secretary general Farhatullah Babar had stated that his party had not been consulted before formation of the council. He said that the speaker had lost the trust of members of parliament and, therefore, the opposition believed that he had no right to constitute committees on his own.

Mr Babar said the opposition parties had already decided to boycott all the committees under the speaker due to his biased conduct during proceedings of the house and that they were sticking to their earlier decision. However, he said, the issue could be discussed on the platform of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

Members of the council are Syed Fakhar Imam, Shafqat Mahmood and Pervaiz Khattak of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI); Dr Fehmida Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance; Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (Muttahida Qaumi Movement); Khalid Hussain Magsi (Balochistan Awami Party); Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema (Pakistan Muslim League-Q); Rana Tanveer Hussain, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk (PML-N); Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Aftab Shaaban Mirani (PPP); Shahida Akhtar Ali of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Sardar Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party.

Sources in the government told Dawn that the speaker had formed the council following incidents of scuffle and ruckus during the assembly session last month. They said the speaker had taken the step as he had been facing difficulties in running the house in a smooth manner due to aggressive behaviour from both the treasury and the opposition members.

Earlier, the speaker finding himself helpless had already taken notice of such incidents on the assembly’s floor and had even issued letters to four MNAs, including two from the PTI, seeking an explanation, but there has been no progress on it.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2021