Nisar forewarns of ‘tough time’ ahead for government

Opposition leader says PML-N losing patience with administration’s indifference.

ISLAMABAD:

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that his party’s protest during the budget speech was just the beginning of what would be a decisive push against the government’s “indifference” towards key national issues.

“It is the start of a decisive reaction to the government’s compromises on the country’s sovereignty,” Khan told journalists after members of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the main opposition party, raised slogans that forced the finance minister to cut his inaudible budget speech short.

He said the PML-N will try every possible thing to make the government realise its responsibilities. “We are going to give them [the government] a really tough time now … our patience is running out,” Khan said, immediately after the budget was presented.

There has been a marked increase in aggression by PML-N MPs towards the government in recent weeks. On Friday, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said the party might consider resigning from parliament to pile up pressure on a “discredited” government failing democracy and the country. Earlier, there were reports that the PML-N might seek fresh general elections ahead of Senate polls in March 2012. The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is set to acquire an absolute majority in the upper house for three years if Senate elections are held under the current equation.

In his hard-hitting speech, Khan censured President Asif Ali Zardari for remaining tight-lipped over the Abbottabad operation and the terrorist attack on Karachi’s PNS Mehran base. “We had pressed the government for a joint session and for a resolution but instead of honouring its commitment and taking steps in line with the resolution, rulers in collaboration with defence institutions brokered a deal with the US,” Khan alleged. “Drone strikes and suicide attacks have become a routine and the government is displaying criminal negligence,” he said.

Ruckus in the house

PML-N staged a violent protest that lasted till the very end of Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh’s budget speech.

Ahsan Iqbal and Tehmina Daultana of the PML-N did not shy away from relating their sentiments towards the budget to the finance minster. Iqbal handed a Roti (leavened bread) to Sheikh, while Daultana took off her bangles and threw them at the finance minister.

What was clear from the entire ordeal was that the federal budget for fiscal year 2011-12 clearly failed to win the support of the government’s coalition partners and members of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as well, who in a turn of events, shied away from taking a stance against the outright rejection by the PML-N.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2011.