Speaker bars parliamentary secretaries from answering other ministries' questions

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has barred parliamentary secretaries from answering questions relating to ministries other than their own, ruling that the member attached to the ministry concerned must respond when the relevant parliamentary secretary, minister of state or federal minister is not present in the House.

Sadiq made the ruling during Question Hour on Monday, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Question Hour is the period at the start of a sitting in which members put questions to the government on the floor of the House and ministers or their deputies reply.

According to APP, the speaker said the parliamentary secretary concerned was responsible for answering questions about the relevant ministry because that member is briefed on its affairs. The agency's report did not say whether the ruling followed a specific dispute over a reply given on behalf of another ministry, or whether a parliamentary secretary had sought to answer outside their remit.

Parliamentary secretaries are members of the National Assembly appointed to assist federal ministers in carrying out their duties in the House. Under the assembly's rules of procedure, questions are ordinarily answered by the minister concerned, with the parliamentary secretary responding when the minister is absent.

The speaker's direction narrows that arrangement: a parliamentary secretary may not stand in for a colleague's ministry, and where no minister, minister of state or the ministry's own parliamentary secretary is present, another secretary will not answer on that ministry's behalf.

The National Assembly was sitting on Monday when the ruling was given from the chair. APP did not report any objection from members, and it was not immediately clear whether the change would be written into the assembly's rules or applied as a standing direction from the chair.

Rulings given by the speaker from the chair govern the conduct of proceedings in the House. APP's report did not carry further details of the ruling.