Opposition leaders call for strengthening democracy

Congratulate Abbasi on becoming prime minister

ISLAMABAD: After Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had been elected Leader of the House in the National Assembly, other candidates vying for the top post congratulated the new prime minister and said that the Constitution should be protected at all costs.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly after the vote, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Sahibzada Tariqullah congratulated Abbasi for becoming the Leader of the House.

They said with the election of a new PM, the democratic process was complete. They thanked their parties for nominating them as candidates for the top slot.

In his speech, PPP’s Qamar said Pakistan faced crisis when the ousted premier’s family was accused of having offshore companies. He said everyone feared that Pakistan might face instability.



“The constitution must be protected and the law must take its course... as individuals don’t matter,” he said, adding that the process “does not stop because of individuals unless the centre of power is the house”.

“You said you have a month as PM... I give you 10 months and we will support you as long as you’re working in the larger national interest,” he said to Abbasi.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI candidate Sheikh Rashid said it would have been better had the newly elected prime minister spoken on the foreign policy.

He spoke about the $20 billion decline in Pakistan’s exports from an earlier $25 billion and the swelling of imports to $53.1 billion from $41.67 billion “which is alarming”.

Responding to the PM-elect’s statement that no allegations of corruption on him were proven, Sheikh Rashid alleged that he had signed the most expensive LNG contracts.

He also talked about the “negative aspects of the CPEC, for which thousands of acres of land has been handed over”.



He said a lot of Chinese labour force was coming to Pakistan while under the Master Plan 90,000 Chinese labourers would arrive in Islamabad alone.

The Awami Muslim League leader came under fire from the treasury benches when he started to talk about Maryam Nawaz and the Dawn Leak issue.

In a strong reaction, Nawaz’s son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar threatened to strip him naked if he did not take his family’s name with respect.

Responding to that, Sheikh Rashid said Maryam was like a daughter to him and added that Nawaz and Sharif should be held responsible if he (Rashid) was killed then.

In his speech, Sahbazada Tariqullah of the Jamaat-e-Islami said there should be across-the-board accountability, and all those whose names were revealed in the Panama papers should be answerable.

When given the floor, MQM-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar said even though his party backed the PML-N candidate for prime minister, they were still part of the opposition.

He also talked about the issues of Karachi and said that despite its 70% contribution to the total revenue, not a single drop of water had been added to its quota of water for the past nine years.