Govt plays hardball with opposition

ISLAMABAD: Exchange of below-the-belt accusations between the ruling PML-N and the PTI lawmakers that turned into a brawl in the National Assembly  on Thursday did not take place incidentally but was part of the ruling party’s plan — to “pay the opposition in the same coin.”

“This was not something coming out of the blue,” said a PML-N source privy to the matter.



He said the PML-N top leaders – including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif – held a meeting with senior party members wherein it was decided that the party would get into the ‘payback mode’ as far as the opposition parties’ anti-government moves with regard to the Panama Papers controversy are concerned.

In the said meeting, the party leaders – Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafique and Rana Sanaullah – suggested that PML-N needed to give a ‘solid’ response especially to the PTI’s anti-government manoeuvres and criticism in the backdrop of the ongoing Panamagate controversy in order to ‘balance the equation.’

“It was then decided that the ruling party would get tough with the opposition forces even if it came at the cost of parliamentary ethics and political decency,” he said.



Some other PML-N sources also said the party’s  policy can be explained in the backdrop of a feeling within PML-N’s ranks that Panamagate case was taking toll on the party’s popularity and that the public criticism coming  from the rival parties was simply ‘adding insult to injury.’

“We have a legal team to take care of legal issues related to Panamagate in the Supreme Court. Legal options apart, the political options also needed to be applied to stand the pressure we are faced with,” said another senior PML-N leader assigned to the party’s Punjab chapter.

He said strong opposition posed by the PTI since its recent return to the parliament had put the PML-N in an embarrassing situation.  He said the NA sessions had to be adjourned recently because of the PTI lawmakers played it too aggressively to allow the lower house’s proceedings to continue.

“This put us politically on the back foot and relayed the wrong message that federal government is defenceless on Panamagate issue and therefore is acting passively,” he said.

According to the source, apart from political embarrassment, the opposition parties’ focus on playing up the apparent contradictions in the PM’s statements added to the ruling party’s concerns and prompted it to go into a ‘confrontational mode’.

Recently, the PPP also upped the ante against the federal government and took out a rally from Lahore to Faisalabad. The same day, the opposition parties led by in the NA’s Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah moved a privilege motion against the apparent contradictions in PM’s statements.



Speaking to The Express Tribune, Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, however, denied that leadership allowed the party members to get tough with opposition members. He said the trade of barbs between the PML-N and the PTI MPs took place due to the latter’s ‘highhandedness’.

“We meet frequently to discuss different issue but no particular instructions regarding opposition have been issued. It is the PTI’s highhanded antics that are causing our workers to run out of patience and react,” he said.

PTI warns against linking Afridi’s suspension with brawl

Meanwhile, the PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned the government that the party would not allow conduct of the NA’s scheduled session on Monday if the PTI MNA Shehryar Afridi’s suspended parliamentary membership was linked to Thursday’s episode.

“The ministers are behaving in an inappropriate and immature manner. The government needs to tame them if it wants order in the house. There would be no session on Monday if our MNA’s suspended membership is linked to the Thursday’s turmoil,” he told a press briefing after attending the meeting of parliamentary leaders convened by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2017.