House rules: Unification Bloc can’t vote for budget: Raja Riaz

Opposition leader repeats demand that govt release flood inquiry report.

LAHORE:

The Unification Bloc in the Punjab Assembly cannot vote in favour of the budget to be presented by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government because it is against the rules, Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Raja Riaz said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, Riaz said that the Unification Bloc, which is made up of dissident MPAs elected on PML-Quaid tickets, was an opposition group and could not vote for the budget.

He said that he and his fellow Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPAs were willing to vote for the budget in case the PML-N needs votes, as they had pledged to stop “the politics of turncoats” when the two parties signed the Charter of Democracy.

Riaz said that the PML-Q had already field reference against nine members of the Unification Bloc in the Election Commission so the PML-N should not put them in more hot water by asking them to vote for this year’s money bill.

About PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s recent public pronouncements calling for independent investigations of the security failures during the May 2 Abbottabad raid and the attack on the PNS Mehran in Karachi, Riaz said that that the former prime minister should learn from the PPP not to be so antagonistic.

While the PPP practised “the politics of reconciliation”, he said, the PML-N practised “the politics of confrontation”.

He said that as the PML-N’s partner in the Charter of Democracy, the PPP would continue cooperating with them to keep the Punjab government stable. He said even while the PPP was helping the PML-N in Punjab, the party was trying to create chaos in the country for the federal government.

He described Nawaz Sharif’s recent statements about how strong the country was during his tenure as prime minister as “sentimental”. “He should talk about the time during his regime when all foreign exchange accounts were frozen,” he said.

Riaz said the Supreme Court should proceed with cases against the Sharif brothers for alleged loan defaults of billions of rupees so the public could see their “real faces”.

Flood inquiry

The opposition leader repeated his demand that the Punjab government publish the report of an inquiry into the breaching of bunds during last year’s floods. He said the inquiry conducted by a judge found that the irrigation secretary had diverted flood waters on the order of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

He said that he had pointed this out at the time. The Supreme Court should take suo motu notice of the chief minister’s actions, or the PPP would move the court over the issue, he added.

Asked why he hadn’t resigned in protest at the chief minister’s decisions, Riaz said that he had not resigned because it would have gone against party discipline, but he had recorded his protest at the breaching of bunds at a press conference. He said the chief minister was mentally ill, but did not elaborate.

MPA Farooq Yousaf Ghurki, Haji Azizur Rehman Chan and Zikriya Butt also attended the press conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2011.