Imran’s vitriol must be reined in, PM tells NA

Shehbaz says vilification of state institutions cannot be tolerated

ISLAMABAD:

Following an “anti-state speech” by former premier Imran Khan a day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman must be reined in before he divided the country any further.

Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the prime minister said that Imran was making a mountain out of a molehill by making allegations of the US threat. He warned that if the situation was not controlled, Pakistan could meet the same fate like Syria and Libya.

“What Imran Khan said yesterday was horrible. He is poisoning the minds of the country’s masses. The country will be further divided and this language must be stopped according to the Constitution and law,” he told the house.

Shehbaz was referring to Imran’s speech at a rally in Abbottabad on Sunday, in which he narrated the fall of Bengal and Mysore because of the betrayal of Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq, respectively. Imran was also highly critical of the neutrality of the state institutions.

Shehbaz said that the example Imran gave about the betrayal of Bengal’s Nawab Sirajud Daulah “in reference to our national institutions” was “very dangerous and terrifying”, adding that Imran “directly” likened Pakistan’s institutions to Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq.

He reminded the lawmakers that the same institution Imran was now targeting, had extended unprecedented support to the PTI-led government. “You were fine with this institution when it was feeding you like a baby... the support you got from it was unprecedented,” he added.

The prime minister recalled that former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once threatened then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto while former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was also threatened by the US after September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

“Imran is making mountain out of a molehill, when he alleges that he received a threat from the US,” Shehbaz said. “We have a long history of threats [from the US] but I am at loss to understand from where this conspiracy of threat [to Imran Khan] came,” he said.

Shehbaz warned that if the situation was not controlled, Pakistan could meet the same fate like that of Syria and Libya. “If he is not stopped … it could lead to chaos. He [Imran] wants to wind up the democratic system. This should be controlled otherwise no one will be spared,” the prime minister remarked.

Shehbaz also criticised the PTI government’s economic policies regarding arranging oil and gas supplies, maintaining power plants, managing the fiscal deficit and taking loans. “It [PTI government] ‘mortgaged future generations’ with massive loans it took.”

NA resolutions

Soon after PM Shehbaz’s speech, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf observed that any attack on the state and its security institutions launched with the purpose of weakening them was against national interests.

Also during the session, the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution, strongly condemning the PTI chief for allegedly maligning state institutions. The house resolved that no one would be allowed to malign the state institutions for political gains.

The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi, said that the PTI chief twisted historical facts to malign the armed forces of the country by giving the impression that they were conspiring against the country.

Read more: Don’t drag military into politics, warns ISPR

“Pakistan's security forces are defending the country's borders fearlessly and have given countless sacrifices while defending the country against the scourge terrorism,” the resolution read. “Any attempt to malign a state institution for political gains is a disservice to Pakistan.”

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the words uttered by the PTI chairman against the armed forces were extremely regrettable. “There should be a national consensus to defend state institutions so that no one could dare malign them,” he added.

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Terming Imran Khan “Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq” in the present scenario, he said Imran was in pain because all the state institutions were working within their constitutional ambit. Recently, he added, the National Assembly brought an in-house change through a no-confidence motion against Imran.

The lower house of parliament passed another resolution, which called for establishing a task force under National Assembly member (MNA) Dr Ramesh Kumar to implement the Supreme Court decisions regarding minorities' rights.

Question hour

During the Question Hour, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told the house that general public could lodge their complaints on the toll-free number 0800-73672 regarding violation of code and conduct on the electronic media.

She said that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) had established an effective mechanism to check the code of conduct on TV and Radio broadcast. “All Pemra licencees are obliged to comply with Pemra laws in letter and spirit,” she added.

The information minister said that a council of complaints had been established in each provincial headquarters to resolve the grievances of the public about any aspect of content being aired on private electronic media.

In her policy statement, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Minister Shazia Marri announced that those beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), who were excluded by the last government, had been granted the right to appeal.

While answering a series of supplementary questions about the Billion Tree Tsunami, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman stated that planting trees was necessity for reducing environmental degradation but it was not the core public policy about climate change.

“This is especially true for an acutely water-stressed, and climate-stressed country like Pakistan. We literally face a clear and present water scarcity issue along with a distraction challenge among provinces, but climate impacts are severe in multiple ways,” she added.

“We have been trying to look at all the different climate crises, challenging sustainable human development, food and water security, as well as air quality in Pakistan. It is clear to us that the country certainly needs to fight for climate justice at multilateral forums,” she continued.

“I am not here to trash my predecessors, however, we need to shift focus to transparency, data generation and other actions such as energy transitions. But those won’t happen if we don’t mainstream climate change as part of the public policy agenda,” She concluded.

During the session, the Fiscal and Debt Policy, January 2022 and the Mid-Year Budget Review Report FY 2021-22 were laid before the house. The house will now meet again at 11am on Tuesday (today).

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)