CJP’s ‘controversial’ remarks: AGP cannot speak on behalf of parliament: Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: The last day of the Senate’s 324th session saw treasury members not only arguing with one another but also with opposition lawmakers over the alleged “only one honest prime minister” remarks attributed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial—as the house failed to take up even a single agenda item from its scheduled business on Tuesday.

In the house proceedings that lasted for just over 15 minutes, treasury Senator and former chairman Senate Raza Rabbani from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took exception to the alleged remarks of the CJP that “only one prime minister in the country’s history was honest” and questioned the authority of the country’s top judge in giving this statement.

Rabbani spoke in protest to the alleged remarks. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that he received a letter from Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Shehzad Ata Elahi, wherein, he clarified that the CJP did not give any statement regarding the honesty of the prime minister. Tarar said that the CJP’s remarks were quoted out of context and propagated on social media.

Rabbani was of the view that the AGP could not speak on behalf of the parliament and a letter should be written to him in this context.

If the attorney general is such a strong supporter of the parliament and judiciary, then he better side with parliament when judiciary attacks the parliament, the former Senate chief deplored.

Tarar responded, “The AGP clarified because he was in the Supreme Court and he had firsthand knowledge of what happened there—the CJP gave no such remarks regarding the honesty of the PM.”

Opposition Leader Dr Shahzad Waseem remarked, “If you want to respect the courts, then respect the constitution—court has ordered to hold elections—this parliament is incomplete—the country’s largest political party is being pushed to the wall.”

Waseem added, “Two provincial assemblies are lying vacant—the Supreme Court said in a case related to NAB (National Accountability Bureau) that the parliament was incomplete—you better discuss these issues here—you should announce elections date—either you accept the court’s decision or you don’t accept them at all.”

In the mid of the exchange of allegations between the law minister and the opposition leader, Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, who was chairing the house sitting, remarked, “It looks like you are not in a mood to run the affairs of the house.”

The Senate was then prorogued without transacting any agenda item. The un-transacted agenda items included question hour, presentation of six reports, a motion, a point of order, and two calling attention notices.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023