Amid an uproar over the tight-lipped policy of the government over domestic as well as international concerns, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday staged a walk-out from the National Assembly that led to an exchange of accusations between the government and the opposition.
The house resonated with slogans like 'drone attacks: not acceptable', 'price hike: not acceptable', 'America ka jo yaar hai ghaddar hai (whosoever is friend of America is a traitor), Zardari ka jo yaar hai ghaddar hai (whosoever is friend of Zardari is a traitor) despite clear instructions from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi that sloganeering was not allowed.
The speeches by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Khawaja Asif of PML-N and Syed Khrusheed Ali Shah and Qamar Zaman Kaira of the PPP were seen merely as an outburst against each other. Though leaders from both the parties maintained that they did not have anything personal, they could not help themselves from going back into the politics of 90s which is known for acrimony between the two.
While reminding each other of their contributions for sustaining the current democratic system, leaders from either side of the fence demanded of each other to be decent and not to violate decorum of the parliament. Leader of the Opposition, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan came hard on the ruling PPP at its failure to take the house into confidence over recent spate of price hike, increase in prices of petroleum products; Raymond Davis issue; load shedding and the mandate under which ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha had visited the USA.
Earlier on April 13, Nisar had asked the government to brief the house over all these issues while issuing a warning of resorting to protest in the Assembly. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan lashed out at the government for not taking the house into confidence saying earlier it was a military dictator and now there was another dictator (reference to President Asif Ali Zardari) under the garb of democracy.
"This country does not belong to Zardari family," Nisar said and added that his party had no other option except to protest until the government replies in accordance with the parliamentary practices. "If we cannot safeguard rights of the masses, are unable to stop drone attacks and are helpless to have control price hike, then we should not sit in this house," said Chaudhry Nisar.
"Let's take a collective decision to go in the tribal region where drones are firing missiles and stage a sit-in to save innocent people from dying," Nisar said, adding how can the government be exonerated from the responsibility of stopping these attacks.
He also made it clear to Khursheed Shah of the PPP who had responded to his speech that it was not a dispute between the PPP and PML-N but was the question of prestige of the house and the country. Nisar reminded the PPP of rowdyism in the Punjab Assembly and maligning of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, reaction of the PPP workers as well as leaders to several judgements of the apex court, comments regarding Chief Justice of Pakistan and minus one formula offered by President Zardari during their negotiations for the restoration of judges sacked by Pervez Musharraf.
Responding to Chaudhry Nisar and PML-N walk-out, Syed Khurseed Shah of PPP said that his leaders Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto had sacrificed their lives for the people of this country and no one else except PPP had right over 180 million people of this country. "Please do not drag us to the politics of 90s," Shah asked the opposition adding raising slogans against the President of Pakistan was not acceptable.
He referred to the role of former American President Bill Clinton in clinching a deal with former President Pervez Musharraf regarding release of Mian Nawaz Sharif and said "what should be called to those for whom American President had given the guarantee?" He also reminded the PML-N that it was President Asif Ali Zardari who had convinced Mian Nawaz Sharif not to boycott the 2008 elections.
"If we (government and opposition) started maligning each other and resorted to politics of the past, people would forget sacrifices of Benazir Bhutto and exile of Nawaz Sharif. They would look for a third option," Khursheed Shah warned. He, however, invited the PML-N for negotiation forgetting the past and tendered apology if his party had been unfair.
After the speeches of two leaders, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Khawaja Asif resorted to exchanges of harsh words while asking each other not to go into their past. The Information Secretary of the PPP had referred to several engagements between the two parties (Zardari's visit to Raiwind, Nawaz's visit to PM House, Presidency, Bhoorban Declaration) and the leaderships while giving credit to his leader for the ouster of military dictator Pervez Musharraf.
Hitting hard at Kaira, Khawaja Asif of the PML-N said that President Asif Ali Zardari did not have any trust on any of his party member therefore he never let anyone sitting in this house joined him in meetings with Mian Nawaz Sharif. Asif asked Kaira not to be so authoritative while referring to meetings between the two parties.
"We do know well how to perform our role as opposition," said Khawaja Asif adding, had this government shown a trace of good governance things would not have been so bad. However, the newly elected member of the Assembly and a former federal minister Awais Leghari censured both the parties for wasting time of the parliament. "For the last two hours both the parties are blaming each other. What have they done for the people?" he questioned. "Taxpayers money is being wasted and nothing else," Leghari lamented.
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