Treasury benches call Opposition in Senate to unite for fighting national challenges

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP): The members of the treasury benches on Friday called the Opposition members in the Upper House of the Parliament to unite for fighting national challenges with consensus.
The Senate session started debate with the two-point agenda of tabling the copy of the President’s address before both the Houses during the joint session on April 18th and the motion of thanks to extend the House’s gratitude to the President for his address to the joint sitting of the Parliament.
The meeting of the Upper House of the Parliament commenced with the recitation of the verses of the sixth chapter of the Holy Quran “Al-An’am” in which the Almighty commanded the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to not associate himself with those who create divisions within the religion and proclaim that he is blessed with following of the true religion, the right path of truth and the Lord will reward them who do associate others with Him.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar moved the agenda second item of laying on the table of the House copy of the Address of the President made under clause (3) of Article 56 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the joint session of the Parliament.
The Chairman Senate ruled the action against the agenda being late.
Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Senator Sherry Rehman while taking at the floor, extended her felicitations to the Chairman for holding the maiden proceedings after his charge in an exemplary manner.
“President Zardari’s suggestion should be welcomed as he has invited all political parties while giving them the discretion to decide to turn a new page in the history of the nation by according unity for the national cause,” she said.
The PPPP Senator underlined that her party had rendered sacrifices but never tainted the honour and prestige of the state. “PPP claims with honour that no witch hunting and political vindication done in any of its tenure,” she added.
Senator Rehman queried the Opposition benches, “Do we need to start our new parliamentary year with conflicts and bitterness and is it that we want?”
She added that it was important and crucial for members of the Parliament to give respect to each other and consider the Parliament the only and the best forum for dialogue to improve the future of the country.
She maintained that countries could never be secured through narrative and image building, infuriating the youth and running social media campaigns against the state interests.
The Chairman also welcomed a group of 33 members from Mehergarh Youth Leadership from Islamabad who were witnessing the House proceedings.
Senator Khalil Tahir Sandhu of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the leaderships of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto through the 18th Constitutional Amendment paved the way for the minorities to become members of the Senate which was abandoned to them in the past.
He felicitated the Chairman Senate for declaring August 11th as a symbolic minorities’ day as the then Prime Minister.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Barrister Syed Ali Zafar also extended felicitations to Chair for assuming the office.
He said the Senate is based on equal representation of the country but unfortunately senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have not been given representation so far. He enshrined his trust in the chair for giving equal rights to all the members as he was the guardian of the House.
Barrister Zafar urged the Chairman Senate to run the house strictly as per the rules as to debate and differ was an unalienable right of the members and it entailed responsibility to mind one’s words during occasions of discourse on the floor of the House.
“The biggest duty is that criticism should be taken with open hearts and patience because the Opposition will have harsh criticism based on logic and reason and will debate with responsibility,” he said.
He mentioned that Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah gave the concept of a plural democracy based on rule of law, good governance, unity and diversity and a society built on tolerance. However, the decision and policy makers would have to resolve extremism and illiteracy through education, he added.
“Mr Jinnah in 1947 called for imparting scientific and technical education to our people but we failed. We need to tackle the menace of poverty to eradicate extremism and illiteracy,” he added.