NA Speaker urges to strictly follow SOPs during session

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has urged all the members to strictly follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) during parliamentary sessions to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The Speaker underlined the need while chairing a meeting of parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly to discuss modus operandi for conducting sittings of the National Assembly amid the pandemic.

The Speaker said thirteen members of parliament and a significant number of staff members had been tested positive for COVID-19. It was agreed that a session is being held in special circumstances, hence all safety precautions should be followed by the members and the staff.

The meeting also decided not to discuss any other issue and discuss the upcoming budget and its passage. The federal government will present the budget for the financial year 2020-21 on June 12.

It was also agreed upon that the sittings of the assembly would stretch up to three hours with the presence of one-fourth members of assembly during a particular sitting.

The meeting also decided to discuss issues of PIA air crash, steel mills, locusts attack on crops, sugar crisis and atrocities of Indian forces in occupied Kashmir during the pre-budget sittings of the assembly.