Reactions to presidential address: Lawmakers decry one-sided Mamnoon’s speech

Say the government made no effort to persuade senators not to boycott the session.

ISLAMABAD: In a sharp departure from the wild jeering and booing that greeted his predecessor at the joint sittings of parliament, President Mamnoon Hussain’s maiden address before the bicameral house on Monday wasn’t an interrupted affair – even if it was boycotted by some senators.

Members of parliament saved their criticism for later when the president was done with his speech.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said the president did not speak on any important issue and only represented the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

“The government’s first-year performance is not satisfactory,” said Imran, contradicting the president’s claim.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah was much kinder to the president, saying his address was normal. Mamnoon, according to him, did his best to represent the government.

Speaking about the protest of opposition senators, a large segment of which boycotted Mamnoon’s speech, Shah said the prime minister should have approached the opposition leader in the Senate to address the senators’ concern. He termed the senators’ boycott as justified.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, who did not attend the joint session, told media that he considered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for the boycott. “Why he did not prefer to appear in the Senate despite repeated demands?” he asked.

Commenting on the opposition boycott, the disgruntled PPP Senator Babar Awan said: “It was a homeopathic boycott of ‘Khabarnama’ speech in joint session.”

Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Shaikh Rasheed Ahmad said the president’s address both started and ended on “praise for Premier Nawaz Sharif”.

The PPP’s MNA Nafisa Shah said President Mamnoon's address completely missed the issue of Balochistan and hardly touched on terrorism and how government was dealing with it.

“The presidential address dealt extensively with democracy and reconciliation – the message was clearly to defuse civil-military tensions,” she added.

The federal ministers avoided media to express their views on presidential address. Media persons chased them till their departure trying to extract their views.

Talking to The Express Tribune Adviser to PM on National Security Surtaj Aziz declared the president’s address as “balanced”, adding that it gave a clear mandate to the government to ease its relations with its neighbours. To a question, Aziz said Pakistan and India had agreed to carry forward the dialogue process despite all odds.