ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly was held under the chairmanship of Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser at Parliament House on Monday to discuss modus operandi for conducting sittings of the National Assembly during Covid-19.
The Speaker while initiating the discussion, said that thirteen members of the House have been tested positive for Covid-19 besides a significant number of staff members. He stressed upon all the members to strictly follow the SoPs since he and his family members had been victim of this virus. He said that he can feel the agony and pain through which the corona virus patients and their families undergo.
There was a general consensus that the session was being held under special circumstances that warrant decisions and their strict adherence in order to minimize chances of spread of Corona virus. It was agreed that health guideline and SoPs would be followed in letter and spirit by Members and Staff of the National Assembly.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, Ministers Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Mr. Pervaz Khattak, Special Assistant to PM for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Zaheer Udin Babar Awan, MNAs, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Raja Pervaz Ashraf, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Syed Naveed Qamar, Mr. Ayaz Sadiq, Mr. Asad Mehmood, Abdul Wasay, Mr. Khalid Hussain Magsi and Mr. Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan.
It was decided that no legislative and non-legislative agenda would be taken up during the session giving maximum opportunity to Members to take part in general discussion on Budget and its passage.
It was agreed that the sittings of the Assembly would stretch up to three hours with presence of 25% of the total membership of Assembly during a particular sitting and that to be decided by the Leadership of parliamentary parties. The Chief Whips of the parliamentary parties were asked to submit names of their members interested in taking part in the discussion beforehand to the National Assembly Secretariat. The meeting also decided to hold discussion on issues of PIA air crash, Steel Mills, locust attack on crops, sugar crisis and atrocities of Indian Forces in occupied Kashmir during the pre-budget sittings of the Assembly.
