NATIONAL Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Sunday formally lifted long-standing restrictions on the airing of opposition lawmakers’ speeches on the NA’s dedicated television channel and social media platforms. But this should not be received as some act of generosity. Indeed, it is quite alarming that the curbs were imposed in the first place, and also that the Speaker had seemingly acquiesced to them. All elected lawmakers are sent to the National Assembly by the public to speak on their behalf and advocate for their wishes. Their speeches should not be considered a privilege to be policed. To actively prevent them from being heard, in fact, negates the principles of a parliamentary democracy. It is also disturbing that this ‘restoration’ of the opposition’s right has come with conditions. The Speaker, on the prompting of the law minister, warned the opposition not to criticise the judiciary and armed forces, or they would lose their ‘privileges’ again. Whatever the legal basis of that demand, it raises uncomfortable questions about the ‘supremacy of parliament’. The government cannot simultaneously claim that parliament is supreme and insist it avoid entire subjects during its debates.

Parliamentary supremacy should not be a slogan that is invoked cynically and selectively. If it is to mean anything, it should be ensured that elected representatives are able to speak and be heard, and worry only about the electorate’s judgement, not the government’s. It is regrettable that the current rulers’ antipathy towards the opposition seems to be overriding their commitment to political processes. That same antipathy towards the opposition surfaces in the judiciary as well. It is unfortunate that several senior PTI leaders have again been handed hefty sentences, adding to a pattern of legal actions against the party that its supporters — and many neutral observers — regard as politically motivated. Last Saturday, a Lahore ATC handed 10-year prison sentences to Dr Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mahmood-ur-Rasheed, Ejaz Chaudhry and Omar Sarfraz Cheema in a case arising from the burning of police vehicles during the May 9 unrest. They were convicted just days after urging opposition leaders, through a letter from jail, to “engage constructively” with the prime minister on a “Charter of Pakistan”. If political dissent is treated as something that cannot be tolerated, there will be no way out for the country from its current political troubles.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2026