On Sunday, during a session chaired by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, the federal minister Umar Ayub suggested that using the word ‘selected’ for Prime Minister Imran Khan should be prohibited. Qasim Suri agreed.

Suri said “No one should use this word in the assembly. It is an insult to the parliament.”
According to him, all members sitting in that assembly were present after acquiring a certain number of votes. When did this start? The term was actually used for the first time in parliament on August 17th, 2018 by Pakistan People’s Party’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He congratulated Imran Khan for coming into power by addressing him as the ‘PM select’. This highlighted how the opposition parties believed that Imran Khan came into power through unfair means.

Was this necessary? #SelectedPM is currently one of the top trends on twitter. However, was there really a need to ban a word as mild as ‘select’, when there have been instances when members have literally stood up swearing in parliament. Will this actually change things? Or will this just fuel the opposition more? Essentially, this just restricts what they can say.

Where do you draw the line? On Sunday, the word ‘selected’ was banned in parliament. What’s next?It doesn’t matter who you support, be it PTI, or PPP, or PML-N, freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. Obviously, keeping in mind that it is done in a civil manner.
There are so many more issues with the way sessions in the parliament are conducted and the way members behave.
Fix them first.