“We are protesting because we want to save the Parliament, not to destroy it,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament on Wednesday, a day after lawmakers from the ruling party, its allies and opposition came down hard on the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) for “storming the Parliament House”.
“This Parliament is our political Ka’aba and I’d told PAT supporters to stay away from it,” Qureshi said in an emphatic rejoinder peppered with clarifications. He sought to distance his party from the actions of PAT supporters who had broken into the lawns of the Parliament House after they were teargased and lathi-charged by the riot police on August 30.
Although PTI lawmakers have resigned from the National Assembly, Imran Khan asked Qureshi and other MPs of his party on Tuesday to attend the ongoing joint session of Parliament ‘one last time’ to present their viewpoint. The PTI lawmakers were able to attend the session because their resignations are still pending acceptance with Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
During his speech, Qureshi was notably silent over the status of the resignations. Earlier on Saturday, the party’s de-seated president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi claimed, “No lawmaker was happy to submit their resignations.” Qureshi didn’t clear the air on the supposedly forced resignations.
Much of Qureshi’s speech was spent on the defensive as he refuted allegations against the PTI, particularly from Hashmi. “The PTI never was and never will be part of any ‘grand plan’ that will undermine democracy,” he said, evidently in response to Hashmi’s claim that the protest sit-ins were ‘scripted’.
Turning to the storming of the headquarters of the state-run Pakistan Television Corporation by protesters Monday morning, Qureshi denied responsibility for the incident. “I do not command them. I do not lead them. I can request them,” he said.
Qureshi defended PTI’s protests, which began on August 14 and took a turn for the worst on Saturday after PTI workers marched towards the Prime Minister House. “I want to be on record saying my party opposes the invoking of Article 245,” he added.
Qureshi quoted the right to assembly from the Constitution, saying that it was their constitutional right to stage a peaceful protest. He repeated Imran’s claim that “not even a flowerpot had been broken during the protests” to much derision from the rest of the lawmakers attending. “The PTI throughout the march has stayed within the law, I can speak for my party,” he said.
“We embarked on this journey after agreeing on four points,” Qureshi said. “Our points were that our struggle will be democratic and peaceful, within the realm of the Constitution, and if any extra-constitutional action is taken – I am referring to martial law — we will condemn it and oppose it.”
Throughout Qureshi’s speech, lawmakers from the government and its allies continued to hoot and boo him, prompting the speaker to call for order several times. Perturbed by the rowdiness, opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah stood in his chair to ask the government MPs to allow Qureshi to make his speech because every member has the right to speak on the floor of the house.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who left the house during the break, didn’t show up until Qureshi wrapped up his speech.
Qureshi reiterated his party’s official line: there was widespread rigging in the 2013 general elections, the prime minister must resign, there must be justice for the Model Town violence in which 14 PAT workers were killed and there must be an equitable solution to the current political impasse. “There is a deadlock, where do we go from here?” he asked. “We are here today because of the impasse.”
Qureshi announced that the party would meet the political jirga set up for talks later on the in the day. He added that the talks must lead to positive results or someone might try to sabotage them. As he concluded his address, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq summoned Qureshi to his chamber. PTI MNAs walked out of the Parliament to shouts and jeers from pro-government lawmakers, who chanted, “They will not resign!”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2014.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
But you are not for saving this Parliament as you have alleged it to be based on rigging, no matter your Party accused of rigging in no more than ten seats and merely on the basis of your accusations, you have decried this Parliament as unrepresentative. So where is your sense of proportion, Mr. Qureshi?