NA continues hasty legislation despite outrage

According to the report filed by Amir Wasim in Dawn, the National Assembly (NA) approved 12 more bills on Wednesday.

Along with debates over legislation, the NA saw a verbal altercation between Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf and South Waziristan MNA Ali Wazir when the legislator accused Pakistan’s intelligence agencies of “installing” the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan and demanded that those responsible for bringing the Taliban back to Pakistan be held accountable.

The angry speaker warned the MNA not to talk about sensitive matters related to Pakistan’s security forces, and then switched off the mic for Ali Wazir, declaring his words “anti-Pakistan”.

During the passage of the bills, members of different allied parties in the coalition government complained that the PML-N didn’t take them into confidence in the matter of the bills.

Some members were also concerned about a bill passing amendments to the Secrets Act, granting powers to intelligence agencies to raid and detain common citizens without warrants.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Agha Hassan Baloch has also said that BNP-M doesn’t want to be part of this hasty legislation. PPP lawmaker Shahida Rehmani and JUI-F’s Aliya Kamran were also against the passage of the bill.