ISLAMABAD: The Senate is set to take up a heavy agenda, including debates on key national issues and some resolutions on sensitive matters when it meets after a two-day recess on Monday.
Besides this, the 49-point agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat for the private member’s day sitting also includes introduction of 10 bills and passage of another five bills which have already been approved by the respective house committees.
On a motion moved by Bahramand Khan Tangi of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Senate will have a discussion on “the failure of the present government to restructure the loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to make them profitable”.
The house had already witnessed a heated exchange of arguments on the issue on the opening day of its session on Friday when the opposition parties protested over the government’s move to retrench over 9,000 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and its privatisation.
Motion on alleged govt failure to restructure loss-making public sector enterprises on agenda
Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar, however, justified the government’s decision and informed the house that the accumulated losses of SOEs had exceeded the annual defence budget outlay. He said the previous “visionless, regressive and backward governments” which made huge inductions into these SOEs were responsible for it.
The minister said the previous governments of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP could neither revive nor privatise the PSM.
PML-N parliamentary leader in the Senate Mushahidullah Khan recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan used to claim that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf after coming to power would successfully run the PSM.
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq warned that massive retrenchment would have broad repercussions and asked the Senate chairman to refer the matter to the standing committee concerned, which the chair did.
Meanwhile, the Senate is also set to debate a motion moved jointly by PML-N’s Agha Shahzaib Durrani and Mohammad Ali Saif of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on the issue of reforms in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and granting the provincial status and representation in the country’s parliament in line with the resolution passed by the GB Assembly in 2017.
The house may discuss the need for reforms in GB in order to enhance sense of participation of its people, upgrade standard of governance and public service delivery and boost industry and commercial activity, especially under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, keeping in view the resolution passed by the GB Assembly on Aug 15, 2017, demanding “Constitutional Status of Province with representation in the parliament”, says the motion on the agenda.
Besides this, the house will also “discuss the non-establishment of commission under the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017, despite the passage of three years since its enactment”. The motion seeking discussion on the issue has been submitted by Mushtaq Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI). Another motion of the same senator seeking a debate on “the share and projects of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Public Sector Development Programme for the fiscal year 2019-20” is also on the agenda for the Monday’s sitting.
Meanwhile, the senators will also debate the performance of the Pakistan Railways on a motion moved by PPP’s Bahramand Tangi seeking a discussion on “the significant increase in railway accidents during the last one and half years”.
Mushtaq Ahmed’s resolution “recommending the government to take necessary steps to fix the minimum wage for labourers at par with the price of one tola gold, ensure the provision of financial assistance and ration to daily wagers and labourers working in the informal sectors and issue special passes to the labourers for purchasing kitchen items from Utility Stores on discount rates” is also on the agenda.
JI chief Sirajul Haq through a resolution has urged the government to celebrate the 15th of Ramazan as Orphans Day at official and unofficial levels.
The house will also take up an important resolution moved by senators Sajjad Turi, Dilawar Khan and Zeeshan Khanzada “demanding that the government should allow prohibited bore arms licences to all parliamentarians — senators, MNAs and MPAs of all four provinces — and BS-20 and above officers of the federal and provincial governments”.
The important private member’s bills which will be introduced in the house, if not opposed by the government, include the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Working Women (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2020; the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020; and the Pakistan Environmental Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
