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After consultation of Joint Opposition’s Steering Committee, Shehbaz Sharif replies the letter written by Asad Qaiser to him

ISLAMABAD, Nov 14 (SABAH): After the consultation of the Joint Opposition’s Steering Committee, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has replied the letter written by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser to him.

The meeting of the Steering Committee of the Joint Opposition in Parliament was held virtually on Sunday to review the letter written by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser to Shehbaz Sharif.

The letter written by Shehbaz Sharif to Asad Qaiser on Sunday has been shared by Vice President PML-N and former Speaker NA Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on social media. During the meeting of the steering committee of the joint opposition the reply of the letter written by Asad Qaiser to Shehbaz Sharif was written.

The joint opposition has informed Asad Qaiser about the right way of carrying out the legislation in the joint session of the parliament.

It has been written in the letter that the Committee on Legislative Business was formed by the Speaker on 23rd June 2021, to consider the 21 Bills passed by the National Assembly on 10th June 2021 without following the required legislative procedure.

The Committee held three meetings on July 9th, August 30th 2021 and September 9th 2021; no meeting of the Committee was scheduled by the National Assembly Secretariat in the last eight weeks. The Committee in its three meetings could not even finalize the Terms of Reference for its procedural jurisdiction due to lack of support by the Government members. During the period, all the Bills which were to be considered by this Committee either lapsed or were rejected by the Senate and were referred to the Joint Sitting of the Parliament, thus completely neglecting the purpose for which the Committee on Legislative Business was formed.

The letter says that the Opposition believes that issues of national interest, especially legislation with wide-ranging long-term impact on people of Pakistan, should be resolved through consensus oriented consultation; the following process will allow an objective consideration of the various Bills to the Joint Sitting of the Parliament.

A Parliamentary Committee composed of members from both Houses of Parliament should be formed by the Speaker to consider and approve with consensus a complete package of electoral reforms including the Elections (Amendment) Bills 2021 passes by the National Assembly but not passed by the Senate. Composition of this Parliamentary Committee should be on the same basis as the Parliamentary Committee formed by the Speaker on 25th July 2014 (composition of this Parliamentary Committee is attached) which held 117 meetings and unanimously passed an electoral reforms legislative package on 20th November 2017.

The Committee on Legislative Business should consider the other Bills passes by the National Assembly but not passed by the Senate which have been referred to the Joint Sitting of the Parliament.

It has been written in the letter that we believe the above process to be in consonance with parliamentary practice and procedure to achieve the required consensus on issues of national importance.

It is worth mentioning here the meeting of the Joint Opposition’s Steering Committee was held through a video link on Sunday.