Bilawal furious over curbs on NA panel meetings

ISLAMABAD: Firing a broadside at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the “container people are attacking parliament from the inside”, which is closing “our democratic path”.

Addressing a news conference at Zardari House here on Tuesday, the PPP chairman termed the restrictions imposed on meetings of the National Assembly standing committees an “attack on parliament”, saying parliament is incomplete without standing committees.

On the media censorship, Bilawal said, "I have already said, also on the floor of the National Assembly, that censorship does not resolve issues. Once again, the frustration you are suppressing today will find a way out one day in one way or another and it will have negative consequences."

He stressed that the views of political parties could be different but for the welfare of the country, all would come on the same page through parliament.

PTI govt has made lives a living hell: Bilawal

Bilawal remarked that both the speaker and the deputy speaker were abroad when the notification regarding the meetings of the committees was issued. He said that he had summoned human rights committee meeting, which would take important decisions on the subject. He demanded of the speaker to take back the notification regarding the committee meetings.

“These are fascist attitudes of the government. We cannot tolerate insult to democracy.”

He said according to the rules of the house, the speaker could not impose restrictions on the standing committees and maintained that the parliament was incomplete without the standing committees.

Bilawal said the government should realise that running the country and parliament was not a cricket match.

To a question about the ousting of Senate chairman, the PPP chairman said that he respected Sadiq Sanjrani.

“The opposition had elected him when there was another party in the government.”

He added that now the situation had changed as another party was in the government and the opposition wanted the chairman of its choice.

He advised Sanjrani to resign on his own and let the opposition elect a new chairman.

NA speaker suspends standing committee sessions

To another question regarding the alleged video of Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik, Bilawal urged the top judiciary to look into the issue.

“This is a serious matter. Maryam Nawaz talks about one judge, not all of them. Higher judiciary should look into the cases and resolve them. Judiciary should not give decisions under pressure. There is a need to introduce reforms in judiciary; otherwise, the system will not be able to run,” he said.

He said that instead of taking up cases under pressure, judges should leave the cases.

On the issuance of production orders for his father Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal said that those who claimed of not being afraid of death were now scared to issue a production order.