ISLAMABAD
Members of the National Assembly on Thursday lauded the completion of five-year parliamentary tenure and the role of both the opposition and ruling parties, hoping that the country would have a bright political future. The House suspended the routine agenda and the Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza allowed the members to express their experiences what they had during the last five years while being members of the House.
Opening the discussion, Riaz Hussain Pirzada lauded the completion of five-year parliamentary term and the role of senior parliamentarians to hold fruitful debates on national and international issues. He hoped the people would elect again the senior politicians in the next elections as they had strived a lot to strengthen democracy and institutions.
Pirzada also appreciated the role of PML-N as opposition party particularly during the legislation and thanked the people of his own constituency for reposing confidence in him.
Abdur Rashid Godil said despite passage of five years the country's economy could not flourish as the number of tax payers was on decline and currently only 0.62 million pay taxes.
He said the parliament had made important legislation but it could not be implemented that left various national issues unresolved. Sardar Mehtab Abbasi said though the government has completed its five years but unfortunately, we could not deliver much for resolution of people's issues.
However, he said the elections were nearing and the people would get chance to fairly elect their representatives on basis of transparency and performance.
He said the people consider the parliament as an institution regardless of the political divide so they would stand accountable all the parliamentarians from both the opposition and government parties.
He said, during the period, the country remained in grip of terror wave and financial burden and the government did not take seriously the suggestions made by the opposition parties.
Mehtab Abbasi
said Karachi and Balochistan had suffered the most on hand of terrorists where not only hundreds of innocent people were killed but the industrial sector also suffered a lot. Regarding education, health, transport and other public sectors could not get deserved space in government policies, adding that as good step, the national security was discussed threadbare and also summoned the military top brass to brief the parliamentarians.
He said for the first time in parliamentary history, the Public Accounts Committee functioned effectively and recovered heavy embezzled public money besides making a deterrent for the future. Particularly, he appreciated Speaker NA for running the House impartially without losing the temper even during the tough political circumstances what he said would be a challenge for her successor to follow the suit.