The amendment, proposed by the opposition party Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) Dr Nafisa Shah of the PPP, was tabled in the House for discussion and was approved by the members. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmed opposed the amendment, saying that it is a collective responsibility of the cabinet to respond to the questions raised by the opposition benches in the House.
He said the prime minister is a member of the House and whenever, he feels the need, he comes to the Parliament and takes it into confidence and gives policy statements on different issues. In a voting conducted by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, as many as 60 votes were in favour of the amendment while 73 votes were in the opposition. All the opposition members, who were present in the House and the government's ally Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai cast their votes in favour of the amendment.
The amendment had proposed that there should be a Prime Minister's Question Hour Time on the first Wednesday of every session to respond to questions submitted by the members. According to the amendment, "in the second and half hour of the Question Hour, the Prime Minister shall respond to questions submitted by the members. Provided that the Leader of Opposition shall have precedence over other members when taking up the questions and may ask not more than three supplementary questions."
Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said that it would be opportunity for the government to strengthen the Parliament. He said that former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani had been attending the session regularly, adding that it was a good tradition and it should be continued, he said.
Syed Naveed Qamar said, "Don't push this to an extent that we have to take decision to leave the House. Why the Prime Minister does not respond, why bureaucratic shield is being used in front of political leadership." The house also rejected another resolution moved by Dr Nafisa Shah of the PPP calling upon the government to take steps to make National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) an effective and fundamental organisation.
Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Maryam Aurangzeb informed the House while opposing the resolution that the present government has taken a number of steps to counter terrorism. She said that NACTA was established in 2008 by the previous government but neither the service rules nor business rules were prepared.
She maintained that the PML-N government not only prepared service rules and rules of business but also approved them and recruitment is being carried out. She further said that presently, 157 employees are working in the authority and co-ordinating the National Action Plan (NAP). She said the operation Zarb-e-Azb is producing results. Dr Nafisa Shah said that the government continued one-sided accountability as the government has started cases against Mir Munawar Talpur and Dr Asim, adding that it is National Action Plan of the PML-N.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad has said that the government is working on building water reservoirs to conserve water. He was responding on a calling attention notice moved by Dr Nafisa Shah and others regarding poor water disputes resolution strategy and ineffective water conservation and management policy. Shaikh Aftab said the government has an effective water conservation and management policy and water is properly being distributed among the provinces and almost all the provinces are satisfied with the method.
Winding up the debate on a resolution, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said that the government managed to maintain prices of essential commodities. He said food inflation has been maintained at one percent while low prices of petroleum products have supported the government in keeping the inflation rate at lower level. He pointed out that prices of cooking oil, potato, rice and other items have also gone down.
Two bills "The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2016" (Amendment of Article 11) and "The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016" were introduced in the House. The chair referred the bills to the Standing Committees concerned for deliberations.