Younis Habib’s testimony: Nawaz, Shahbaz asked to resign ‘immediately’

PPP boycotts session as treasury cuts Riaz’s speech short, Rana Sanaullah says Sharif brothers will appear in court.

LAHORE: The house met on Friday for about 90 minutes. The proceedings, though short, were eventful.

Shortly after the Question Hour, Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz, rising on a point of order, started criticising Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for “taking money from generals”. The diatribe ended with a demand: the chief minister must come to the house and answer legislators’ questions, under oath.

This was followed by treasury members chanting slogans against President Asif Ali Zardari and thumping of desks. The Opposition retaliated with desk-thumping and slogans against the Sharif brothers. Riaz tried to continue but stopped because of the commotion. Amidst the din, PPP’s Sajida Meer asked the speaker to let the opposition leader continue because it was his right to express his point of view. The advice was ignored. This led to the PPP boycotting the proceedings.

PML-Q’s Asghar Goral then pointed out the quorum, a requirement that treasury members were unable to meet. The session was then adjourned till 3pm on Monday.

The harsh exchange was not confined to the house. The PPP and PML-N leaders also expressed their disdain for each other before the session started.

“Shahbaz and Nawaz Sharif claim that their politics is based on principles,” commented Raja Riaz while talking to reporters. Former Mehran Bank president Younis Habib’s statement in the Supreme Court, he said, had exposed the ‘principles’ they stood for. Riaz quoted Habib as saying that Shahbaz had been given Rs2.5 million while Nawaz had received Rs3.5 million from the army to topple the PPP-led government in 1990.

The opposition leader said that the PPP had tried to tell the public that PML-N was a “party of dictators” that had always gained power with the support of generals.

Riaz also criticised the Sharif brothers for fleeing the country after reaching an agreement with General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. They lied to the nation even after the contract was made public, said Riaz, adding that they had yet to apologise to the public.

Raja asked the Sharif brothers to “resign immediately” for taking money from the army otherwise, he warned, another rebel like Javed Hashmi would rise from within the party and reveal the ‘truth’.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, in his talk with reporters, called the allegations “false” and “baseless”. He said that the PPP government had crossed “all limits” in corruption. The government was trying to divert the public’s attention from its own wrongdoings – corruption and compromising the commissions formed to investigate the May 2 attack and the murder of Saleem Shehzad, he said. Sanauallah said that since the matter was sub-judice he could not discuss it in any detail. He, however, assured the public that the Sharif brothers will appear in court to clear their names. “The PML-N will comply with the Supreme Court’s decision, whatever it is,” he said.