Unimpressed opposition says PM just wasting time

Protesting parties to meet today to chalk out future strategy.

ISLAMABAD: The prime minister’s clarification speech in the National Assembly on Monday failed to satisfy the opposition, which walked out of the session in protest for the sixth consecutive day.

On the day when the PM was expected to give a befitting reply to the protesters, the joint opposition claimed Nawaz Sharif’s 30-minute speech gave answers to none of their seven questions and instead raised many more.



Soon after the premier stopped speaking, the opposition lawmakers staged the walkout, angry that their seven questions remained unanswered.

“Not a single question was answered by the PM,” said Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah while talking to the media outside the Parliament House, where he was flanked by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s chief Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, among others.

“We presented seven simple questions and wanted their clarification to be simple as well,” Khursheed complained. “But the PM has increased our questions from seven to 70 and wasted our time by levelling counter allegations.”

The opposition parties might have decided on the walkout strategy in a meeting held earlier but kept its cards close to its chest.

“We thought Nawaz would simply offer explanations about his offshore firms and London flats, but we heard new stories about Jeddah and Dubai,” the opposition leader lamented.



The opposition, he said, walked out since “we do not wish to waste the nation’s time by resorting to useless speeches”. “The best judge of Nawaz’s speech is the people of Pakistan,” he added.

Imran seconded Khursheed, saying Nawaz wasted too much time and could simply have shown the documents related to his offshore companies.

He showed some documents and reading out from them, talked about his own offshore company.

The PTI chief said everything about his company was clear, including its record with the Federal Board of Revenue, along with the buying and sale deeds of his London flat.

“We did not need to hear such a long story. He [Nawaz] could have shown the documents as I have done so,” Imran contended.

Responding to the PM’s claim of not being directly named in Panama Papers, the PTI chairman showed Nawaz’s tax returns, claiming the premier’s daughter Maryam Nawaz was shown as a dependent and still owned two offshore firms.

Opposition preps seven blunt questions for PM Nawaz over Panama leaks

“How can a dependant own such huge amounts of money to buy offshore firms,” he questioned.

“The PM was not truthful and did not clear himself as half of his speech was against me.”

Showing some more documents, Imran claimed the PM bought the “first [London] flat in 1993, the second and third in 1995, the fourth in 1996 and the fifth flat in 2004”.

Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said PM Nawaz had deliberately ignored the question about the date of ownership of his flats in London and the money used to purchase them.

Sheikh Rashid said the government’s attitude on the Panama leaks scandal was evident from the absence of its lawmakers from the house. “Even in the presence of the PM, around 143 treasury members were present including the 20 women elected on special seats,” he lamented.

The ruling PML-N has 189 seats in the National Assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2016.