Opposition fires broadside against govt over ‘black laws’

Shehbaz Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto among others slam NA Speaker Asad Qaiser for being partisan

ISLAMABAD:

They fired a broadside against the government after the passage of the Financial Action Task Force-related bills in the joint session of parliament, accusing the treasury of trampling the democratic norms to impose black laws in the country.

Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Maulana As’adur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others also accused Speaker Asad Qaiser of playing a partisan role.

“Today is a “darkest day” in democratic history of Pakistan,” Shehbaz Sharif, the president of the PML-N, told a joint press conference with other opposition leaders. “The proceedings of the House were trampled and the government crossed the red lines today,” he added.

Shehbaz said that the government wanted to pass a black law that would allow arrest of any person without giving reason. He added for the first time in the country’s history, the opposition leader was not allowed to speak in the house.

“The opposition strongly condemns the government’s behaviour. Stopping the opposition leader from address the house was not the speaker’s authority. The speaker has disappointed everyone,” Shehbaz told reporters.

The opposition leader in the National Assembly said that so far, they had sided with the government in the interest of Pakistan. Now, he added, the all parties conference (APC) – scheduled for September 20 – would take the final decision on the government’s behaviour.

The PPP chief told the media persons that the only option left now was the no-confidence motion. He said that the government could have conducted the recount of the voting on the bills, but it did not do so for fear of being exposed.

“We had the right to state our position in the House. Stopping the opposition from speaking in the house is unconstitutional after the decision of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The speaker has no right to stop the leader of the opposition,” he said.

Rejecting the legislation passed in the joint sitting, he said that the right to warrant for arrest had been taken away from the people. Now we have to take tough decisions,” he said, adding: “We will have a thorough discussion in this regard in the APC.”

The PPP chairman said that during the voting in the session, the government included unelected advisers also. “The government had included advisers in the recount today, otherwise, there was no problem in the recount.”

As’adur Rehman said that the bills passed in the joint sitting had no legal status. “If we don’t accept Sharia at gunpoint, how could we accept legislation under pressure,” he said. “An unelected person asked the speaker not to give two minutes time to the opposition. We will take this issue in the APC.”

Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed Muhammad Shahi of the National Party told reporters that the government forcibly turned “our majority into a minority”, adding: “The government reminded of the 2018 elections. Today Pakistan is left alone in the world”.

PML-N Senior Vice-President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that government members were acting not only in haste but also with incompetence as they were making legislation which was not in the interests of Pakistan and its people.

Abbasi criticised the government over the FATF-related bill, saying that the amendments “we had proposed to the government in the Anti-Money Laundering Act were rejected but “now that the same amendments are passed in the bill”.

“We have suggested that the investigation under the Anti-Money Laundering Act should not be carried out under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Act,” he said, adding that it would be wrong to suggest that the amendment would benefit the elected members.

Abbasi said that the amendments rejected by the Senate, earlier in the day, were also made part of the joint sitting agenda. “The present government is making black laws under the guise of FATF,” the former prime minister said. “NAB has become the most corrupt institution in Pakistan.”

“پارلیمان کے مشترکہ اجلاس میں غیر آئینی طریقے سے بل کو منظور کروایا گیا”۔
چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری@BBhuttoZardari pic.twitter.com/16RkY4yaS0

— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) September 16, 2020