Calls for PM’s resignation echo in Senate

Govt, allies defend Nawaz; ask opposition to wait for SC verdict

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties on Thursday used the Senate platform to raise their demand for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation after the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) found ‘anomalies’ in the ruling family’s offshore businesses.

The Senate session – requisitioned by the opposition – concluded after four days with a strongly-worded ruling by Chairman Raza Rabbani who vowed to defend democracy and the Constitution in case “anyone tries to damage parliament”.



“Parliament is the foundation of democracy. If any attempt is made to damage parliament, I assure this house that as the custodian of parliament and the Senate I will be in the forefront to defend democracy and the Constitution,” said Rabbani before reading out the prorogation order.

His remarks took everyone by surprise since no member from either side of the aisle during the entire session mentioned any threat to democracy from any quarter. However, he did not elaborate it.

What was expected to be an explosive session of the opposition-dominated upper house turned out to be an insipid sitting where senators from both sides mostly maintained decorum, partially due to strict administration of their chairman who presided over it for all four days.

At the onset of Thursday’s sitting, the chairman repeated his Wednesday’s ruling, explaining why he was allowing discussion on a subject which is sub judice.



In his ruling, he circumscribed the limits for members to deliberate on the matter, making sure they made their speeches that should not be construed as prejudicial to the court proceedings.

This led to a healthy tradition to set in because most members adhered to his ruling, drawing accolades from Rabbani. Members from the main opposition parties – the PPP, the PTI and the MQM – were unanimous in calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

The sole ANP representative reiterated his party’s position that they should wait for the Supreme Court adjudication.

However, the PML-N was intransigent and rejected any possibility of Sharif leaving the office. They questioned the veracity of the JIT report and repeated almost all the objections on the floor of the house which counsels for the Sharif family have raised before the apex court.

Leader of the Opposition Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan remarked: “The prime minister is culpable of wrongdoings on many counts and deserves to be penalised.”

“How can a lawmaker work for some offshore company and have a work permit of some foreign country when he has taken oath of fealty to Pakistan.”

Barrister Ahsan also tried to prove that the prime minister was guilty of forgery after it was established that the SECP chairman had tampered with documents to favour the Sharif family.

He cited clauses of the Pakistan Penal Code, ascribing seven years of imprisonment to those forging documents and life imprisonment to the beneficiary of such forgery done in court-related matters.

Among the treasury members coming to defend Sharif, Law Minister Zahid Hamid was most elaborative. He repeated almost all arguments which the Sharif family’s lawyers had given in the court to challenge the JIT report. Most of these arguments were of technical nature.

The house also debated the Fata reforms package which was announced by the government a few months back, but now appears to have been put on the back burner.

Taking part in the discussion, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the reforms package was approved by the cabinet on March 2, but the government did not bring the constitutional amendment bill needed to extend the jurisdiction of the superior courts to the tribal areas as promised in it.

“Subsequently, the package was withdrawn from parliament itself. Then the word ‘merger’ was quietly changed to 'mainstreaming' Fata in official discourse,” he said.

The senator said that Federal Minister for SAFRON Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch had claimed that the military was against the reforms even as the ISPR had said that the commanders meeting had favoured the reforms. He demanded an explanation over “this dichotomy”.

“The budget speech proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the so-called reforms package when no mention of the reforms was made and not even a token allocation was made,” said Babar.

“A Peshawar High Court verdict has proposed a constitutional amendment for extending the jurisdiction of superior courts to Fata, and a private member's bill giving effect to this verdict has been passed unanimously by the Senate committee on law and justice,” he said.

Some people opposed the reforms fearing that in case of Fata’s merger with K-P, it would no longer be possible for the mosque and pulpit to dominate the political discourse in the tribal areas, he said.

The PPP senator also warned against the proposed Rewaj Act, saying that its adoption in the present form would amount to reincarnation of the draconian FCR through parliament, instead of its abolition.

He asked the Senate chairman to immediately re-convene the meeting of the Senate Committee of the Whole to suggest a way forward on all aspects of the proposed reforms.

Fata senators Haidatullah and Salahe Shah also spoke on the subject.

Responding to the criticism, Lt Gen (retd) Baloch said a wrong perception was being created about him and the army’s point of view on Fata reforms. He said the most contentious issue in the package was the merger of Fata with K-P, adding that the army was not against the reforms in Fata.

“However, the military circles believe that development work in the area should be expedited and all those who emigrated from the troubled areas should be rehabilitated first before a gradual merger [with K-P] after five years.”