ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly, Raja Pervez Ashraf on Wednesday directed strict disciplinary action against the ministries neglecting the House orders to send their BPS-20 or above officials to attend the Assembly proceedings.
The speaker expressed his displeasure for not replying to the queries raised by members of the Assembly (MNAs) related to the Planning Division and termed it an “unacceptable conduct”.
He added that as per the rules, any division or ministry was bound to present a cogent and valid reason in detail for not sending proper replies to the MNAs’ queries.
The speaker sent the matter to the Privilege Committee for further deliberations.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Murtaza Javed Abbasi told the speaker that the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning wanted to attend the session to respond to the queries but was not able to attend the meeting.
He also informed that in the last session, senior officials above grade-20 of some eight ministries’ attended the proceedings, whereas the Culture and Heritage Division extended an apology as its BPS-19 official attended the session. However, the Planning Division’s officials were absent from the current and the previous sessions.