ISLAMABAD:
Parliamentarians made passionate vows in the National Assembly on Wednesday to defend democracy, after harsh words were exchanged by key leaders from both the opposition and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
A speech by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan backed by slogans from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers against President Asif Ali Zardari threw the house into chaos for a brief period.
The opposition’s sloganeering enraged some lawmakers from the PPP, who responded with shouts in favour of the president as PML-N members walked out of the house.
A day earlier, it was reported that the PPP was seeking new political alignments at the centre and in Punjab and that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) might join the government.
Although neither Nisar nor anyone else from the PML-N directly referred to this emerging scenario, there was enough indication that the main opposition party was reacting to the reports.
But what really provoked a senior PPP member to respond to the opposition leader were his comments against President Zardari. “Pakistan doesn’t belong to either the Bhutto family or Zardari … it is for the people living here,” Nisar said, adding that the president had appointed his cronies on all key positions in the administration.
Nisar also accused the government of failing to control security problems and intelligence outfits, which he said were operating on their own without caring for democratic institutions. “Why is the government in office if it cannot control them?” Nisar said.
Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah lost his hallmark cool to remind the PML-N that their party’s leaders sought guarantee from former American president Bill Clinton for their release after the 1999 military coup.
Shah regretted that the opposition party was using the same language against an elected president which it used to snub a dictator in the past.
But both Nisar and Shah appeared to be changing their tone when the house resumed proceedings after a short break for prayer.
“Criticising the president and the government doesn’t mean that we want to weaken democracy … we will give it strength,” Nisar later said.
“We want to improve ourselves and our governance in the light of opposition criticism. We take it positively, but it shouldn’t be defaming democratic institutions and an elected leadership,” Shah responded.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2011.
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