Bilawal Bhutto steals the show

Fires the shots both at Shehbaz, Imran in his maiden NA speech

ISLAMABAD : Despite his being one of the youngest members of the parliament, the Pakistan People Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari emerged as mature voice in Friday’s rowdy show in the National Assembly, in which the elected representatives choose Pakistan’s 22^nd prime minister.

Doing populist politics without realising implications of their acts, both the former ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the current ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) showed a behaviour that reflected that they are not interested in strengthening parliamentary norms.

The PML-N parliamentary party members had entered the hall together with a plan to hold a strong protest in front of Imran Khan, after his election as a premier.

Having not foreseen this ruthless demonstration, the PTI was ill prepared to counter the PML-N’s plans. The party appeared to also to lack ‘trouble shooters’ who could overcome such situation.



It was observed that only Pervez Khatak, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chaudhry Fawad Hussain were active to contact the PML-N top brass to ease the situation but in vain. Even the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar got puzzled by the situation, which emerged during the protest.

Many traditional politicians who joined the PTI before polls and got elected as MNAs also appeared to be shying away from raising party slogans in response to the aggressive slogans raised by the PML-N’s lawmakers led by Rana Sanaullah.

In this whole scenario, the PPP showed maturity. First young Bilawal was surprised over the PML-N protest in front of the leader of the house.  Later, he stood up from his chair for convincing the PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif and other senior leaders to pull back their MNAs but they did not listen to him.

Later, he along with other PPP MNAs walked out of the hall. After sometime, another PPP leader Khursheed Shah, who is the most experienced parliamentarian, returned to the hall.

He tried his best to resolve the crisis but in vain. After one hour of strong protest, Shah was the man who proposed to the speaker to postpone the proceedings for 15 minutes and invite all parliamentary leaders in his chamber to discuss the situation.



The NA speaker acted upon his advice but his meeting with parliamentary leaders could not bear fruit and the PML-N members continuously chanted slogans during Imran Khan’s speech.  One thing was clear that PML-N was successful in provoking the PM-elect to deliver a fiery speech, in which he made it clear that there would be no NRO with anyone and those who looted money will be held accountable.

When Shehbaz started his speech, the PTI MNAs staged a similar kind of protest in front of the PML-N chief. Like the PML-N, they also used derogatory words for him. The PTI supporters, who were sitting in the lobbies, also chanted slogans against Shehbaz.

Interestingly, when the NA Speaker allowed Bilawal to deliver a speech, the PTI and PML-N members dispersed and sat on their seats. A pin-drop silence was witnessed during his speech, which is considered the ‘best speech of day’.

Speaking softly but confidently, Bilawal mostly spoke in English. It was his first speech in the parliament. At the end, all PML-N MNAs including Shehbaz Sharif went to congratulate him on his excellent speech, wherein he remained very balanced.  There was no person specific attack in his speech.  He did not utter a single word against judiciary, which seems hostile toward the PPP in a fake accounts case.

The PPP chairman did not endorse the protest of both the PTI and the PML-N. The gist of his speech was that the parliamentarians should not give room to undemocratic forces and that the parliament is mother of all institutions and should be strengthened.

Bilawal also offered his party support to Imran Khan for the supremacy of parliament. He paid tribute to Haroon Baloor, Ikramullah Gandapur and Nawabzada Raisani, who were martyred during the election campaign and urged members to evolve effective policy to counter terrorism and extremism.

“Unfortunately, both terrorism and extremism are not in the priority agenda of both the PML-N and the PPP,” he added.  Bilawal tried to make Imran realise that he is now prime minister of every Pakistani and urged him to end the politics of ‘hate’ and be tolerant.

Bilawal pointed out that there was a clear pre-poll rigging and manipulations and candidates were not given a level playing field. “We have lost freedom of press and human rights. There are challenges on economic fronts as we are drowning in debts.  There are also challenges on foreign policy front.”

Referring to the foreign policy challenges with regard to Pakistan’s relations with its neighbours especially Afghanistan, he said Pakistan is part of problem and not of solution. “We must look inwards for solution of these problems.”

He said the PPP would keep eye on the fulfillment of the PTI’s 100 days plan. Unlike a judicial probe into alleged rigging in July 25 polls, Bilawal demanded for a parliamentary probe. His sisters – Aseefa and Bakhtawar – were also sitting in the lobby, watching their brother’s first speech in the NA.