NA sets aside agenda for general debate; PPL headquarters shift opposed
The National Assembly on Tuesday set aside its entire 64-point agenda for Private Members’ Day and instead held a National Assembly general debate, with more than two dozen members from the treasury and opposition benches taking the floor on a spread of national issues.
The shelved agenda had held 16 bills, calling-attention notices, motions, resolutions and reports meant to be laid before the house.
The day’s business makes way for a National Assembly general debate
MQM-Pakistan’s Khawaja Izharul Hassan questioned the move on the floor. “Members submit their bills after thorough deliberations and work hard for Private Members’ Day, but these bills are intentionally ignored,” he complained.
Demands aired in the debate ranged from eradicating terrorism and protecting agriculture to ending power loadshedding, settling the KP emergency’s fate, cutting petrol prices, improving healthcare, promoting exports and the proposed PPL headquarters move to Islamabad. MNAs pressed for fuel relief after recent petrol and diesel price decisions, and Dawn reported the session in detail.
PPL headquarters shift: a 2025 assurance against a board decision
The sharpest exchange came over PPL, as PPP MNAs Naveed Qamar, Dr Nafisa Shah and Sharmila Faruqui opposed shifting its headquarters from Karachi to Islamabad, calling it an attempt to diminish Karachi’s importance.
Petroleum Minister Ali Pervez Malik replied that the PPL board had made the decision and it would not diminish the commercial hub’s importance: “The same minister had assured this house in 2025 that PPL’s headquarters and other offices would not be shifted to Islamabad, but today he has changed his statement. How can this august house be fooled?” she asked.
The dispute rests on the minister’s 2025 assurance to the house, as quoted by Dr Shah, that PPL’s offices would stay in Karachi, against his present position that the PPL board made the call. For the PPP members, the move reads as a downgrading of Karachi’s status as the company’s base; the minister denies that reading. No timeline for the shift was stated.
Punjab MPs flag a farm cost squeeze
Punjab MNAs led by Riaz Fatyana and Dr Nisar Jutt said DAP, urea and machinery costs had risen sharply, and that the Export Facilitation Scheme had hurt agriculture and farm exports.
Dr Nisar Jutt said seed, urea and DAP prices had risen manifold while the government had stopped procuring wheat and other crops, leaving farmers to middlemen. Nazir Bhugio and Muhammad Aslam Ghumman said banned urea movement in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was hurting production.
MNA Fazal-ul-Haq said the country had lost $30-35 billion in the seven years since the Export Facilitation Scheme began. “Potatoes worth $1 billion are still lying in warehouses, and the government is not purchasing the stocks.”
Export promotion came up as a parallel demand, days after the prime minister’s warning to tax officers over FBR reforms.
KP emergency splits the floor
PPP’s Asma Arbab Alamgir welcomed the KP emergency, saying the province’s people supported it. She alleged 13 years of PTI neglect in KP, more than 4,000 mine and mineral licences to favoured individuals, and “links with the Taliban”.
PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan took the opposite line, criticising the emergency and demanding the release of “non-functional” chief minister Sohail Afridi and other leaders reportedly in “protective custody”, as the debate returned to the proposed KP emergency.
FAQs
Why did the National Assembly set aside its 64-point agenda?
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah put the Private Members’ Day agenda aside for the debate, opening the floor to more than two dozen MNAs on issues from the KP emergency to farm costs and the PPL headquarters move.
What is the dispute over the PPL headquarters?
PPP MNAs say shifting PPL’s headquarters from Karachi to Islamabad would diminish the city’s importance; the petroleum minister says the PPL board made the decision and the city’s standing is safe.
What did MPs say about farm costs?
Punjab MNAs said DAP, urea and machinery costs had risen sharply, the Export Facilitation Scheme had hurt agriculture and exports, and urea movement had been banned in Sindh and KP.
Who spoke for and against the KP emergency?
PPP’s Asma Arbab Alamgir backed the emergency; PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan criticised it and demanded detained party leaders be freed.
