Shahzad’s remarks stir up trouble in Senate

Opposition leader in Senate Waseem Shahzad on Friday took up the issue of the “raids on the homes” of PTI leaders Saifullah Nyazee and Azam Swati asking what was the fault of their daughters that they had to put up with this, compelling the lawmakers on the treasury benches to resort to react strongly to his remarks.

During the session of the upper house of parliament, presided over by its chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, the opposition leader raised the matter of “political victimisation” of his party leaders.

The senators belonging to the ruling coalition started raising their reservations over Shahzad ‘s remarks.

In response, the opposition leader remarked that those defending the arrest of his party leaders should “drown themselves” in shame.

The government senators objected to these remarks, noting that the opposition leader had told female lawmakers to “drown themselves”.

Shahzad replied that if his comments had offended anyone, he withdrew them.
Speaking on the issue of the upcoming elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, the opposition leader said if the polls were delayed by even a day, it would be in violation of the Constitution.

He added that PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the people were on the same page on the issue of elections being held on time.

PML-Q Senator Kamil Ali Agha condemned the “raid” on former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi’s residence in Gujrat.

He staged a walkout from the House over the incident, in which Elahi and his son Moonis claimed that police had raided their residence, the Zahoor Elahi Palace, in the wee hours of Wednesday and harassed their employees, including women.
The father and son duo had held the Punjab caretaker set-up and the federal government responsible for the raid.

Agha maintained that the people were dying of hunger while the government was involved in political victimising its opponents.

He added that as long as Mohsin Naqvi would remain the caretaker chief minister of Punjab, such incidents of political victimisation could be expected.

He claimed that the PML-Q was implicated in cases with trumped-up charges.
Agha said Elahi’s lawyer was picked up merely because he was representing the former chief minister.

Later, the session of the upper house was adjourned till 3pm on Monday.