National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser Monday urged all the members to strictly follow the standard operating procedure (SOPs) to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
He expressed these views while chairing a meeting of the parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly to discuss modus operandi for conducting sittings of the National Assembly during COVID-19, said a news release.
The speaker while initiating the discussion said thirteen members of the House had been tested positive for COVID-19 besides a significant number of staff members.
He said he could feel the agony and pain through which the coronavirus patients and their families were undergoing.
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 coronavirus. It was agreed that health guideline and SOPs would be followed in letter and spirit by the members and staff of the National Assembly.
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 in the National Assembly Secretariat. The meeting also decided to hold discussion on 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.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, ministers Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervaz Khattak, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Zaheer Udin Babar Awan, MNAs, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Raja Pervaz Ashraf, Ahsan Iqbal, Syed Naveed Qamar, Ayaz Sadiq, Asad Mehmood, Abdul Wasay, Khalid Hussain Magsi and Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan.
