‘MPs will not resign on Fazl, Maryam’s call’

ISLAMABAD:

Responding to the PDM leaders’ plan to submit en masse resignations on December 31, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Tuesday pointed out that the PML-N vice president and JUI-F chief were not members of parliament, therefore, the lawmakers will not quit assemblies on their demand.

“Maryam Safdar and Fazlur Rehman are not members of parliament. The legislators will never tender resignations on their demand,” the information minister said while addressing a post-cabinet news conference in the federal capital.

The minister claimed that there was a split in the opposition on the issue of submitting resignations.

He asked the opposition to wait for its turn until the PTI-led government completed its constitutional tenure of five years.

“Pakistan is a democratic country. The democratic government here can only be removed in a democratic manner. For this, they [the opposition] will have to wait for the government to complete its constitutional tenure,” he said.

The minister observed that history was witness that no government was toppled through public meetings and rallies.

“If any government was sent home [through rallies and public gatherings], those who were behind the plan never gained anything.”

Taking a jibe at PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, the senator said the daughter of a person who was declared an absconder was hurling threats at the government.

He questioned the services of the JUI-F chief rendered for Islam in his political career and contribution he made for the Kashmir cause while being the chairman of the Kashmir committee.

Referring to the PML-N and PPP, Shibli said the parties which ruled the country for the past 11 years had no agenda for the people, adding that the opposition was ready to take every undemocratic step to remove the democratic government.

He said after maintaining silence for two years, the opposition had started raising hue and cry about rigging in the 2018 general elections.

He further said the opposition only accepted those decisions of the judiciary which favoured them.

“The election and its results cannot be according to the wish and will of anyone. The results of the courts which are in [opposition’s] favour are right and those which are not are wrong,” he noted.

He said the PDM leaders had looted the country with impunity bringing it on the brink of destruction and weakened the national institutions.

The opposition leaders during their tenure promoted nepotism and appointed their blue-eyed people on coveted positions that eventually led to the massive brain drain of the country as competent people opted to move abroad for jobs, he added.

Shibli said when the PDM leaders were in the power, they took every possible step to weaken the country’s economy. They kept the economic trajectory upward with cosmetic measures and put the tough decisions under the carpet, he added.

He said the people had rejected them in the last general elections for their corruption, but now they refused to accept the results, especially in those areas where they had lost.

Shibli said the PML-N and the PPP formed cases against each other and “backstabbed’ each other.

He asked the citizens to stay away from the PDM rallies to save their own and their families’ lives from the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

He urged the people of Lahore and the rest of the country to “refrain from falling into the PDM leaders’ trap as they are liars and deceitful, and have nothing to do with public welfare”.

He said the PDM leaders were not bothered about the common people as they wanted to use them for their own agendas and vested interests.

“Their level of sincerity with the people can be gauged from Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari’s engagement in which the Covid-19 test was mandatory for the participants.”

Once the rallies are over, they will not even help the people get tested for the coronavirus, he added.

“Their public gatherings are only meant to get relief in the corruption cases by building pressure on the government but they are mistaken as they have to meet their ultimate fate,” the minister said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan was an honest leader and would never compromise with them on corruption cases.

Shibli said that when the government had called a meeting of the parliamentary committee on Covid-19 chaired by the National Assembly speaker, the opposition boycotted it.

To a question, the minister remarked that Sharif and Asif Zardari did not believe in the existence of the National Accountability Bureau due to their “personal reasons”.

He observed that the senators from the government would not be a part of the agenda presented by the PPP in the Senate.