Budget presentation: PML-N anticipates face-off with PM

Opposition to register noisy protest at PM Gilani’s first appearance in NA since conviction.

ISLAMABAD:

It’s an opportunity to finally face the premier in parliament after his conviction – and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is waiting in anticipation.

The opposition is all set to steal the show at PPP’s presentation of its fifth budget, when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will be present, through a noisy protest.

In this regard, the PML-N held a meeting on Wednesday and decided to participate in the budget session after initial hesitation – some senior party leaders had decided earlier to not attend the budget session according to sources. The fifth budget of the incumbent government is set to be presented by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on June 1.

“A meeting of the parliamentary party has been convened in order to finalise the strategy and assign roles (regarding the protest) to members,” an official from the PML-N told The Express Tribune. The parliamentary party of the PML-N will meet on June 1. The party has also advised all of its members to be present on the day.

“It is going to be the first encounter,” the official said, adding that they were ready for the ‘big day’. Placards, black armbands and sloganeering are all going to be used to disrupt the session and register their protest.

Earlier this week, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan visited Lahore in order to discuss the party’s strategy with PML-N president Nawaz Sharif.

Prime Minister Gilani was convicted by the Supreme Court on April 26 for contempt of court, after which the opposition warned it would let him enter the lower house. The premier did not attend the NA session that day.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2012.