Opposition presses breach of privilege charge against PM

Lower house of parliament witnesses tranquility due to efforts of speaker

ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the National Assembly succeeded on Monday in grilling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for breaching the privilege of the house over his alleged contradictory statements with regard to the Panamagate scandal.

The atmosphere in the house was, however, tranquil – a far cry from Thursday’s proceedings when the house witnessed a brawl between lawmakers from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N.

This was achieved due to the efforts of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq who arranged a meeting between parliamentary leaders in the house in an effort to maintain decorum in the house.

Speaking on the point of order, the opposition vowed to not compromise on its demand to take up the joint privilege motion that seeks explanation from the prime minister for his alleged contradictory statements – one on the floor of the house and other in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

PPP’s Naveed Qamar, on behalf of joint opposition, said: “Whatever happened on Thursday was shameful and against parliamentary norms.”

“We can have wrestling matches outside, but not over here,” he commented and stressed the need to identify red lines about the decorum of the house. He said the speaker should not only be neutral but should also seem to be neutral.

The speaker observed that every political party should control the conduct of its members on the floor of the house. He also maintained that the membership of PTI’s Shehryar Afridi has been restored by the Election Commission of Pakistan, vowing to take action against his secretariat for providing him wrong information in this context.

Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said: “The prime minister has issued directives to every member of the treasury to observe parliamentary norms and make the house environment conducive.”

Sahabzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on a point of order protested against the remarks of Khawaja Asif that he made on Thursday against the JI, saying, “His party believes that everyone should be held accountable.”

In this regard, he cited example of former US president Barack Obama who after relinquishing his office moves to a rented house.

Tariqullah said: “The opposition has the right to move a privilege motion [against the PM] as it believes that the privilege of the house was breached by the PM.”

Sheikh Rashid, while taking part in the debate said the prime minister while giving a statement on the floor of the house had said that all documents were available about the money trail.

The Awami Muslim League leader said it was strange members of the ruling family had been pocketing millions of rupees for vehicles that were worthy of a few hundred thousand rupees.

Rashid also asked: “Why have the letters been arriving only from Qatar to rescue Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif?”

Dr Shireen Mazari, Jamshed Dasti and Shaikh Salahuddin also spoke. When the speaker gave the floor to Qadir Baloch, PTI’s Imran Khattak raised the issue of quorum, forcing the speaker to adjourn the house proceedings.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2017.