Treasury, opposition clash in NA over Senate vote bill

Members shove each other as ministers slam undemocratic attitude

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly once again witnessed scenes of chaos on Thursday as the opposition resorted to noisy protests during the debate on the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill on the second consecutive day.

The house descended into a shoving match between members of the treasury and the opposition, due to which a few parliamentarians fell on the floor, while a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member took the mic down from the deputy speaker’s dais in protest.

In a blistering response to the commotion in the house, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi fired a broadside against the other side of the aisle, saying that what happened in the house showed the opposition’s double standards.

It was the repeat of the scenes witnessed on Wednesday, when the opposition members chanted slogans, blew whistles, banged the desks in a bid to prevent Law Minister Farogh Naseem from reading out the contents of the bill.

The session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri. The opposition’s protests started at the outset of the proceedings. However, things heated up after the speeches of Qureshi and Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar rose from his seat when the chair gave the floor to Planning Minister Asad Umar. Qamar went to the Speaker’s dais and demanded of the deputy speaker to give the mic to the opposition members.

He also tried to speak on the speaker’s mic, but the security staff pushed him back. The deputy speaker asked Naveed Qamar to sit on his seat and then talk. Meanwhile, PTI’s Ataullah and PPP’s Agha Rafiullah came to blows.

Ataullah fell to the ground when he was pushed by Agha Rafi. Murtaza Javed Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), helped Ataullah to recover and take his seat, while PTI member, Faheem Khan, went on to unleash verbal assaults on Naveed Qamar.

When the situation became tense, the deputy speaker called the security and session was adjourned for some time. During the session, the lack of quorum was pointed out twice by the opposition and once by the government. However, the proceedings continued.

The session was adjourned when a PML-N lawmaker pointed out the lack of quorum. Because of the commotion, the Kashmir Solidarity Day resolution could not be taken up. On the other hand, the Speaker took notice of the incident and sought footage of the proceedings.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Qureshi delivered a hard-hitting speech in which he criticised the PPP, and the PML-N, saying that the opposition parties did not have the courage to listen and that they staged walkouts when a minister spoke in the house.

“If [Communication Minister] Murad Saeed stands up, they [PPP] walk out. They do not have the courage to listen,” Qureshi told the house. They use Nawaz League to become champions of democracy. The house cannot be run if this attitude continues,” he added.

“If you think you’re going to bulldoze [the proceedings], we’re not going to allow it. Enough is enough, we have tolerated a lot, we have paid a lot of attention but they have no idea about the [democratic] traditions.”

Qureshi said that if the opposition wanted to speak, then they will have to listen too because there could be no one-sided debate. “This is unacceptable and contrary to democratic traditions,” the foreign minister told lawmakers.

Qureshi said that the government had filed a reference in the Supreme Court regarding the Senate elections to seek opinion of the court whether the Senate elections could be held by open ballot. He added that the issue was pending in the apex court.

“Another option we had was to amend the Constitution but it requires a two-thirds majority, and everyone knows we don’t have that majority,” he said. “Nevertheless, we have introduced this bill to expose the signatories of the Charter of Democracy.”

The foreign minister said that the nation was watching closely the contradiction in the words and actions of the opposition. “We ask the people whether you want a thief in the Senate or a member who will defend the federation of Pakistan,” he said.

Similarly, Qureshi continued, the overseas Pakistanis are an asset of Pakistan, who had given too much support to the motherland, adding that remittances sent by the Pakistani expatriates surpassed the country’s exports.

“They are valuable asset of Pakistan and we want that these Pakistanis get the chance in the political system. “We want to give them the opportunity to serve Pakistan even though they are out of the country,” Qureshi added.

He said that Pakistanis living abroad should see that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wanted to open doors for them in the national politics but “this gang of looters” was trying to block their path. “Whether or not this bill is passed, we will stand by our principled stand.”

Referring to the anti-government campaign launched by the 11-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the minister said that the opposition had come to resign but something changed overnight. “It’s a secret and I don’t want to reveal it,” he added.

He told lawmakers that he had heard that the PPP wanted to bring a former prime minister in the Senate, and had also heard that they were making deals. In Punjab, the PPP did not have the numbers, so how could the party get its candidate elected as senator from there.

“Today the nation has to decide. You have to hold on to democracy or you have to support the thieves,” he said. Qureshi announced that “we will not allow any PPP, PML-N or JUI (lawmaker) to speak on the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry also criticised the opposition, and blamed the PPP for using the PML-N. “I would like to congratulate the PPP, especially Shazia Marri, for the way she has used the PML-N,” he said.

“Mari had made all these posters [which the opposition lawmakers carried during the protest in the house]. In further attacks on the opposition lawmakers, he claimed that “unfortunately two or four people have come here who used to drive trucks in Sargodha” and they did not have the decorum.

Also read: Govt plans LG polls in Punjab, K-P after Senate vote

Chaudhry said that there was no point in negotiating with the opposition because their strings were being pulled from somewhere else. “These are puppets, someone’s strings are pulled from London, and someone’s from Karachi.

He said that Article 23 of the Charter of Democracy calls for transparent Senate election. “But today Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri are going against the words written by [the late PPP chairperson and former prime minister] Benazir Bhutto.”

He said that when the people were bought it was called the politics of Chhanga Manga. “Today it has been proven that the PTI is on the right side of history and these people, as always, are on the wrong side of history.”

Speaking next, Planning Minister Asad Omar asked whether democracy could be strengthened by the use of force. He added that regardless of what had happened in the National Assembly, the “Naya Pakistan” would be achieved.

“It will be the Pakistan of the people and the Pakistan of real representatives. The horse trading will be eliminated. Pakistan came into being through a democratic struggle. Shouldn’t there be a democratic system in this country that the people of this country can trust?”

Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf responded to the criticism of government members, saying that the opposition was not being given the chance to speak on the important issues such as the constitutional amendment.

“We enacted the 18th Amendment, but also did not have the numbers then,” he said. “So, when the numbers were lacking, we formed an all-party parliamentary committee and gave it the power to elect a chairman and Raza Rabbani was elected. In this way we made the amendments,” he said.

Also read: Ruckus in NA as govt tables bill on Senate open ballot

He asked Prime Minister Imran Khan not to listen to those spoiling the atmosphere in parliament to appease him. “For God’s sake, do not listen to them. They will ruin everything. You will soon find out “who the real one is”.

Ashraf accused the government of creating a hoax of legislation so that the people don’t concentrate on electricity tariff hike. “You call me Raja Rental’ but [during my tenure] the per-unit tariff was Rs4 but you are giving it at Rs26 per unit,” he said.

The former prime minister said that this government had crossed all limits of incompetence. “Imran Khan used to show the electricity bill and tell people to tear it up. He used to say that if there is inflation then the prime minister is a thief and today this prime minister is a thief,” he added.

Broaching the constitutional bill, he said that the amendment which had been tabled was a drama to defame the opposition. “We ask them to take our suggestion and form a parliamentary committee,” he said, asking the government to make efforts for a consensus bill.Speaking about the Kashmir Solidarity Day, which is being observed across the country on Friday (today), the former prime minister charged the government of “selling” the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).