Treasury chides PTI on same-page mantra

Demands apology from former ruling party for oft-repeated stance that it was on same page with the establishment

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly resumed on Tuesday its debate on the presidential address delivered at the start of the new parliamentary year with demand from treasury benches that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-turned Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) should tender an apology on its oft-repeated stance that it was on the same page with the establishment during its rule before invoking victim card.

The lawmakers spoke on issues ranging from May 9 mayhem to recent riots in Azad Kashmir and from Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement that high treason proceedings be initiated against deceased dictators, including Field Marshal Ayub Khan, to Leader of Opposition Omar Ayub’s response that the minister’s remarks against his grandfather were “unwarranted”.

Apart from the speeches and taunts on “fake mandate” and frequent interruptions during speeches from both sides, PPPP showed dismay at the opposition leader’s remarks that President Asif Ali Zardari’s speech was merely a “copy-paste” job.

In response to treasury benches’ taunts on PTI’s alleged involvement in the May 9 riots, the counter speeches from opposition benches reminded the treasury that the ‘minority’ government was a beneficiary of Form-47, saying scandals like Dawn Leaks, Panama Papers and Memogate occurred on their watch and it was PML-N, which attacked the Supreme Court.

“PTI should tender an apology for repeating for four years that it was on the same page with the establishment,” MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar said while responding to PTI-SIC’s Ali Muhammad Khan’s speech wherein he talked about curtailing the establishment’s role in politics, among other things.

Sattar said that PTI realised things after "a tsunami hit them", recalling that the other parties had been facing the same for decades.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar said that the government was a beneficiary of a corrupt system and chided the treasury benches to swear if they had come to the assembly after winning the elections. To this, ex-food minister Tariq Bashir Cheema loudly interrupted him by swearing that they had come to the assembly after winning the elections.
Barrister Gohar while expressing displeasure at Asif’s remarks a day ago about Ayub’s grandfather said that PTI was proud of him for his 22 years of parliamentary politics, adding that Ayub has never used a single word that needed to be expunged. He said that Asif himself was an iqama holder and was attacking others.

Read Asif urges national dialogue

He then called the government fake and listed that those pointing fingers at PTI were involved in the Dawn and Panama leaks, the memogate scandal and attacks on the Supreme Court.

Gohar said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has taken resignation from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from the party president’s post because of the fake mandate and didn’t even congratulate those sitting in the assembly. He, however, said that PTI was still ready to move ahead for the betterment of Pakistan, saying PTI founding chairman Imran Khan says he is ready to forgive everything for the sake of Pakistan despite being booked in multiple cases.

Despite all efforts to eliminate PTI, he said that people didn’t abandon the party in elections, saying PTI wants a Pakistan where there is a rule of law, independent judiciary, strong democracy and supremacy of the Constitution. PTI leader Asad Qaiser, the ex-NA speaker, also denounced Asif's behaviour towards Sadiq. “I condemn how he addressed you.”

Emphasising that the role of the NA speaker was “highly respectable”, the PTI leader said Asif should have “shown tolerance” as he has been in the house for years. “He is an 80-year-old elderly man [so] he should at least have some etiquette,” he added.

PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan touched up martial laws imposed by generals Pervez Musharraf and Zia-ul-Haq. He spoke of Nawaz Sharif's arrest and exile, the hanging of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and the assassinations of former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Liaquat Ali Khan. Ali condemned the arrest of Imran Khan and the restrictions on meeting him in Adiala jail. “I was hoping this house would stand up for its former leader,” he said.

PTI leader added: “Quaid-i-Azam in his address said the armed forces were the servants of the people of Pakistan. They do not hold the power to make a national policy. There is no place for brokering or dealing to bring political parties together.” Khan further stated that his grandfather was a colleague of Quaid-e-Azam who took part in the Pakistan Movement. He regretted his presence in Ayub Khan’s cabinet.

“We all have to admit our mistakes. Imran is being punished the way every Pakistani who tried to make independent policies is being punished. We will respect if you stay within the limit, but will protest when you come this way,” said the PTI leader.

In his speech, PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel recalled that Ayub only talked about the presidential address for a mere 33 seconds and said that he didn’t want to talk about something, which was a “copy-paste job”.

He reminded that it was Zardari who faced imprisonment and torture, including the time when his tongue was cut, suffered the loss of his wife’s assassination, sacrificed his powers being president, always called for dialogue and remained kind to his opponents, saying he has once again called for dialogue and declared in his speech that the Constitution should be supreme in Pakistan.

He then explained the president’s speech point-by-point and highlighted his key points to respond to Omar’s remarks that it was a copy-paste speech. Patel insisted that PTI-SIC should admit the mistakes it made in the past, saying if it does so then they would have support from the treasury benches as well.

For a moment before PTI came to power in 2018, Patel quipped, youth as well as some people in other parties used to secretly hope that all their promises may come true. However, he regretted, that it all had gone in vain.

Patel reminded the house that it was PTI’s finance minister who had admitted that debt increased 76 per cent during PTI’s tenure instead of the allegation that it had increased 100 per cent, quipping once again by saying that it was as if someone admitting that he has only murdered 76 people and not 100.

He also reminded PTI that it was they who held a joint press conference with the establishment but were now asking that the establishment shouldn’t interfere in politics; wondering which stance of PTI should be accepted now.

“Only politicians can run the country not cricketers,” Patel said in a veiled reference to Imran being a cricketer.

Speaking on May 9 events, he said that not a single leader of the PPP ever provoked people to attack state institutions. Commenting on Sattar’s speech where he talked about the dissolution of powers and funds at the district level, Patel said that Sattar is a “babu bhai”, who always gives advice to everyone but never practised the same during his youth.

PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi once again reminded Ayub that dictatorship began with his grandfather, recalling that PTI even used to call the army chief "a father" but now speaks against the incumbent military chief. “Only one terrorist organization is responsible for May 9 and it’s PTI,” Abbasi said, saying there shouldn’t be any leniency shown to those who attacked state institutions.

Abbasi, who faced jail during PTI’s rule, shocked the house when he alleged that all kinds of legitimate and illegitimate things were being provided at Adiala jail – where Imran Khan is imprisoned, saying “We regret we couldn’t eliminate cocaine from Adiala jail”.

He was of the view that people were brainwashed against institutions and its demonstrations were witnessed on May 9, saying people were not instigated against PMLN or PPPP but institutions. He demanded lifetime sentences for PTI people.

Several other lawmakers also spoke during the session. It was adjourned till 11am on Wednesday.