ISLAMABAD: Despite Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s rare appearance, opposition members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) continued their loud demonstration in the National Assembly on Tuesday. The lower house passed a bill to establish a health university in the federal capital amid fervent sloganeering.
In contrast to previous practices, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq disregarded the opposition’s complaint and rushed through more than 60% of the 51-point agenda on the private members’ day. The meeting went on for about an hour.
As soon as the national anthem was played and the prime minister entered the assembly session, the opposition stepped up their demonstrations. PTI members beat desks and sang slogans calling for the creation of judicial commissions to look into the events of May 9 and November 26 as well as the release of Imran Khan, the party’s founding leader.
Since the start of the current session, PTI members have been demonstrating on the house floor.
Throughout the session, Mr. Sharif stayed in the house and was mostly surrounded by Treasury members. He was occasionally observed taking applications and chit-chatting with the members while completely disregarding the protests of the opposition.
The premier was once called a “thief” by the opposition, to which some Treasury members retaliated by referring to him as a “lion.”
In the meantime, Anjum Aqeel Khan, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA from Islamabad, introduced a private member’s bill to the National Assembly that sought to create the Nexus International University of Health Emerging Sciences and Technologies in Islamabad.
Agha Rafiullah of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) also submitted an amendment that the house approved, allocating a 10% quota for worthy and disadvantaged university students.
Nevertheless, the house rejected a second amendment proposed by Alia Kamran of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) that called for the creation of the university’s campuses around the nation. Azam Nazeer Tarar, the minister of law, resisted the proposal, claiming that parliament had already agreed to permit the establishment of institutions and research facilities alone in the federal capital and not in the provinces.
Shazia Marri of the PPP also introduced the Qanoon-i-Shahadat (Amendment) Bill 2025 in the house. When the law minister did not object, the speaker forwarded the bill to the appropriate committee.
The speaker did, however, postpone a number of additional bills due to the absence of the members who had introduced them. On the law minister’s request, he also postponed a constitutional amendment bill that would have increased the number of Senate seats available to minorities.
When the minister stated that a standing committee was already considering the same issue, the bill’s mover, Naveed Aamir of the PPP, did not insist for the bill’s introduction.
The law minister had earlier told the parliament, in response to a calling-attention notice, that the government was offering the Election Commission of Pakistan and Nadra whatever assistance they could in their endeavors to close the gender disparity in voter lists.
According to him, the gender gap decreased from 11.8 percent in 2018 to 7.4 percent in the 2024 elections. Only thirty of the 113 districts in the nation still had a gender difference of greater than 10 percent.
Prior to the upcoming elections in 2029, the minister hoped that the gap will be further narrowed.
The next meeting of the National Assembly is scheduled for this Wednesday at 2:00 PM.
