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ISLAMABAD: The Senate is set to take up over a dozen important legislations, besides holding debates on a number of important issues, including the state of economy, population growth and the government’s plan to plant 10 billion trees in the country, when it will meet here on Monday after a two-day recess.
The 46-point agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat for the private member’s day shows that the upper house of parliament is set to pass six bills, whereas the members will introduce nine new bills as well.
A resolution to condemn the terror attacks on New Zealand mosques is also on the agenda.
The motion seeking a debate on the “present position of Pakistan’s economy and ways and means to improve the same” has been submitted by Senator Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F).
The opposition members have already started pulling their muscles to give tough time to the government inside parliament over its alleged failed economic policies.
A resolution to condemn terrorist attacks in New Zealand is also on the agenda
The opposition senators, who had already voiced their concerns during the previous sitting over recent changes in the federal cabinet and inclusion of non-elected people in it, are set to take full opportunity during the debate on the motion to take the government to task over the appointment of Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as adviser to the prime minister on economic affairs after removal of Mr Asad Umar as the finance minister.
A debate on “projects of the federal government for plantation of 10 billion trees in the country” is also on the agenda. The issue is likely to generate heat in the Senate amid opposition’s allegations of corruption in the billion-tree tsunami project of the previous PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The motion on the agenda stands in the name of Senator Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.
The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has already announced that it would lodge an official complaint with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the alleged mega corruption in the billion-tree project launched by the KP government.
Read: PPP wants NAB to investigate billion-tree project
The opposition parties are also criticising Prime Minister Imran Khan for making a claim during a speech in China that five billion trees had been planted in KP, although the project was of one billion trees.
On a motion to be moved by Senator Walid Iqbal of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Senate is set to have a discussion on the “existing laws regarding execution of prisoners on death row suffering from mental disorder and illness and the need to reform the criminal justice system to effectively provide for proper diagnosis and treatment of the under-trial and convicted prisoners suffering from severe mental disorders”.
Besides this, the members of the upper house will hold a debate on the issues of high infant mortality rate in the country and the need for construction of small and medium dams.