ISLAMABAD: Maiden meeting of the newly-constituted Senior Parliamentarians Council (SPC) will be held today (Monday) to take up the incident of opposition lawmakers’ manhandling by activists of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) 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 Syed Fakhar Imam,” says an official announcement by the National Assembly Secretariat.
The statement further stated 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.
Members of the council are Syed Fakhar Imam, Shafqat Mahmood and Pervaiz Khattak of the ruling PTI; Dr Fehmida Mirza of GDA; Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (MQM); Khalid Hussain Magsi (BAP); Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema (PML-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.
Meanwhile, according to a private newspaper, major opposition parties decided to stay away from its proceedings. PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the party had decided not to attend the meeting.
She said it seemed that the speaker wanted to convene a jirga on the issue. She was of the view that since the incident had taken place in the vicinity of the Parliament House and the Parliament Lodges, the speaker should have taken a suo motu action if he really wanted to do justice.
On the other hand, PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf said that he had not so far received any directives from the party leadership regarding participation in the meeting. He, however, said the PPP would go with the decision of the combined opposition on the matter.
