Production order row: Gilani may preside over new Senate session today

ISLAMABAD: Over two weeks after having skipped most of the Senate session against the reported backdrop of production order row with government, Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani is expected to preside over the new session of the upper house of Parliament starting today (Thursday).

Gilani himself summoned the 346th session earlier this week in his additional official capacity as Acting President when President Asif Ali Zardari was on a foreign visit.

Earlier, the chairman Senate skipped all but one meeting of the last or 345th session in reported protest to the non-implementation, on part of the government, of the production order of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Ejaz Chaudhary the Senate chief had issued ahead of this session.

The two-week session started on 14 January and ended on 28 January.

The Senate chairman only chaired the first meeting on 14 January, and remained absent in the remaining seven meetings of the last session.

Although, nothing official came from the Senate Secretariat regarding Gilani’s absence, reports suggested that the Senate chairman was “unhappy” over non-implementation of production order of PTI senator by the government.

Some reports indicate that federal and Punjab governments had assured the Senate chief that the production order would be implemented— but both the governments later backtracked— due to intervention of some “powerful” quarters that did not want Chaudhary to appear in the Senate.

Gilani’s decision not to attend the Senate meeting met criticism from both the treasury and the opposition lawmakers.

In their off-the-record interactions with journalists on the sidelines of the Senate session, some lawmakers from the two sides of the aisle were generally of the view that the chairman Senate displayed a “passive” approach, after failing to get his instructions implemented by the Executive, instead of exercising his authority by assigning the issue to the relevant Senate forum to take the requisite action over non-implementation of the production order.

The Rule 84(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012 provides that the Senate chairman or chairman of a committee may summon a member in custody on the charge of any offence or under any law relating to preventive detention to attend a sitting or sittings of the Senate or meeting of a committee –of which they are a member of— if he considers their presence necessary.

The chairperson(s) of the Senate committee(s) have the powers to summon any government functionary.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025