ISLAMABAD: At a time when the National Assembly is completely dysfunctional in terms of doing legislation due to non-existence of committees, the Senate is set to take up heavy legislative agenda as it meets after a two-day recess on Monday.

The 35-point agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat for the private member’s day sitting shows a total of 17 bills, including three constitutional amendment bills, to be introduced by the members, mostly by those sitting on the opposition benches.

The legislative work has come to a halt due to an inordinate delay in the formation of the standing and other committees of the National Assembly by Speaker Asad Qaiser due to an ongoing tussle between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the opposition parties over the issue of nomination of chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The opposition parties want that the PAC chairmanship should be offered to them as per the parliamentary traditions and they have already nominated Opposition Leader and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif for the post.

House also likely to discuss protests against Aasia Bibi’s acquittal, increase in gas and electricity prices

However, the PTI is unwilling to give the PAC chairmanship to the opposition, saying it could not allow the opposition parties to review the projects that had been initiated and executed by them during their own governments.

Under the rules, the speaker was bound to constitute all the standing and functional committees of the house “within 30 days after the election of the Leader of the House (prime minister)”. Since PTI Chairman Imran Khan had been elected as the prime minister on August 18, the speaker had time till Sept 17 for the formation of over three dozen house committees.

All the opposition parties had already handed over the names of their members for the committees to the NA Secretariat as per rules, but the speaker had to stop the process when the opposition announced that its members would withdraw from all the committees if the PAC chairmanship was not offered to them.

Although there is no restriction on the government in the rules to give the PAC chairmanship to the opposition, it has been a parliamentary practice and tradition for the past 10 years that the office is given to an opposition member in order to ensure transparency in financial matters.

On Friday, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari claimed that the government had offered him the PAC chairmanship, but he refused, saying the post should be offered to the opposition leader. However, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry reportedly denied the PPP chairman’s claim, indicating that the issue will keep on lingering, rendering the National Assembly non-functional.

Besides taking up the legislative agenda, the Senate will also continue discussion on important issues, including the recent protest sit-in by a number of religious parties and groups against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi by the Supreme Court of a blasphemy charge.

The Senate will also discuss the “recent hike in gas and electricity prices” on a motion moved by Opposition Leader Raja Zafarul Haq and signed by 44 other members of the house.

The upper house of parliament is also set to debate on “the terms and conditions of all types of loans recently obtained or being obtained or bonds raised from foreign sources and multilateral lenders by the government in the name of Federation of Pakistan,” shows the agenda.

An important bill making it binding upon the government to place agreements and contracts with other countries, donors and international monetary organisations before parliament for ratification is also part of Monday’s session.

The bill titled “Ratification of Foreign Agreements by Parliament Bill, 2018” had been moved by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani in August.

Through the bill, Mr Rabbani called upon the government to place a foreign agreement, contract or protocol to be signed with any country before both the houses of the parliament to seek approval of its draft within 15 days of its finalisation.

At the time of submitting the bill, the PPP leader had explained that the bill provided powers to the members of parliament to suggest changes to the draft of the agreement with their recommendations. He said the government “shall take up the recommendations of the parliament with the other parties and a detailed report of the proceedings undertaken in respect of the recommendations will also be placed before the parliament.”

Mr Rabbani has suggested in his bill that “a resolution withholding recommendation” may be passed by 55 per cent of the members of each house, thus barring the government from signing the agreement. He had clarified that he had moved the bill only for the future agreements.

The words “foreign agreements” in Clause 2 of the proposed bill means and includes “all agreements, treaties, contracts and trade protocols signed with foreign governments or banks or donors or lending agencies” by the Pakistan government.

“Ratification means passed by a simple majority of each House of Parliament,” says the bill.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2018