Opposition protests in National Assembly over Imran Khan’s medical care

ISLAMABAD: Opposition lawmakers staged a protest in the National Assembly on Monday, demanding what they described as proper medical treatment for jailed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, while the House also took up questions related to reports of deportations from Gulf countries and labour complaints filed by overseas Pakistanis.

The sitting was chaired by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah. At the outset, PTI members did not point out a lack of quorum when proceedings began. However, as the session moved forward, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai rose from his seat and said the deadline earlier given to the government had expired and that the required medical care was still not being provided to the former premier.

Achakzai said the opposition had already warned the government that it would not continue to participate in proceedings if the matter was not addressed by Monday, and added that the opposition would also boycott the budget session. During his remarks, however, his microphone was cut off and his speech was not aired on official channels.

PTI lawmakers then gathered near the Speaker’s dais and chanted slogans in support of their leadership. They also held what amounted to a parallel proceeding inside the chamber and named Achakzai as the Speaker for that exercise. The protest continued during the Question Hour as well.

After the Question Hour concluded at around 6:18pm, PTI lawmakers walked out of the House. Soon afterwards, Shahid Khattak and several other PTI members pointed out a lack of quorum, but they too left shortly after the counting process began. Treasury lawmakers, however, remained above the required strength of 86 members, allowing the sitting to continue.

The House later passed amendments to two laws. The National Assembly is scheduled to meet again on Tuesday morning.

Government rejects social media claims on UAE deportations

During the same sitting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary responded to a question from MNA Mussarat Rafique and rejected reports of mass deportations of Pakistanis from the United Arab Emirates.

He said the reports were not based on facts and described them as misleading material circulating online.

In his remarks to the House, the minister said, "These are all social media creations. In fact, we have not received any complaint from any person regarding deportation from any country, specifically the UAE."

Dr Chaudhary added that crime-related cases did exist and that individuals who had been convicted and jailed abroad were being sent back to Pakistan.

Labour complaints and deportation figures shared in House

The minister further informed the Assembly that Pakistani missions in the Middle East had reported a total of 9,233 labour-related complaints from Pakistani workers. According to the figures presented, 5,321 complaints came from Saudi Arabia, 1,310 from Bahrain and 850 from Oman, while the remaining complaints were reported from Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.

In response to another question, the government told the House that 164,788 Pakistanis had been deported from Gulf countries over the past five years. The country-wise breakdown shared with lawmakers showed 108,029 deportations from Saudi Arabia, 40,497 from the UAE, 9,814 from Oman, 2,971 from Qatar, 2,779 from Bahrain and 698 from Kuwait.

The developments in the lower house combined political protest over Imran Khan’s medical treatment with official responses on overseas Pakistanis, as the Assembly continued its proceedings despite opposition disruption and a failed attempt to break quorum.