ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday urged PTI to end its boycott of parliamentary panels, calling on opposition leader in National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai to use the authority entrusted to him by Imran Khan to bring opposition lawmakers into the electoral reforms process.
Speaking on a point of order in National Assembly, Bilawal said the opposition the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could not demand electoral accountability while staying away from the very parliamentary forums meant to address its concerns.
He called on PTI lawmakers to join the proposed electoral reforms committee and asked Achakzai to direct opposition members to submit their nominations to the National Assembly speaker’s office.
“If you want concerns about rigging in future elections to be addressed, you must participate in the electoral reforms committee,” he said, arguing that the forum offered an opportunity to examine allegations of electoral manipulation and work towards reforms before the next elections.
He said both the government and opposition had a responsibility to make parliament functional, cautioning that the legislature could not fulfil its constitutional role if one side withdrew from its proceedings and committee work.
“Parliament is powerful, and if parliament is powerful, we are all powerful,” he added.
He warned that those seeking to keep parliament weak and ineffective had effectively succeeded when elected representatives failed to use its forums.
Political parties, he added, were duty-bound to represent their constituencies and raise public concerns through parliamentary debate rather than remain absent from the process.
He maintained that the proposed committee would have little purpose without opposition participation, while insisting that the government was willing to engage with its political rivals.
Beyond electoral reform, Bilawal called for parliament to be taken into confidence on the country’s security and economic challenges, developments involving Iran and their implications for Pakistan, as well as the possible risks associated with the country’s defence agreements.
Every parliamentarian, he argued, had the right to know what challenges the country faced and how the government intended to respond.
He called for comprehensive briefings to enable lawmakers to debate the evolving situation and scrutinise the government’s decisions.
Ali Muhammad Khan of PTI welcomed the emphasis on strengthening parliament, reflecting at least some common ground in a house otherwise marked by persistent political divisions.
Achakzai, meanwhile, called for parliament to be made the principal source of political authority, urging the government to strengthen the institution rather than allow political disputes to undermine it.
He said political parties would earn public support if they worked to make parliament stronger. He also reiterated his demand for a committee to examine allegations of corruption against the government.
Seeking to lower the political temperature, Achakzai urged rival parties to move beyond past grievances and sit together for dialogue.
“Neither are you so good, nor are we so bad. Let us sit together,” he said, in an appeal for reconciliation amid continuing friction between the government and opposition.
The proceedings took a more combative turn as Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi criticised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, accusing politicians of exploiting religion and regional identities for political gain.
Abbasi defended the armed forces and police, particularly personnel confronting militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and called for national unity in the face of security threats.
JUI-F leader Maulana Ghafoor Haideri assailed the ruling PML-N for its alleged double standards on the military establishment, accusing Hanif Abbasi of switching loyalties for political expediency and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif of following the “might is right” principle.
He said the JUI-F had condemned martial law when the PML-N held a two-thirds majority, while the party had failed to pass even a resolution against it.
He also accused the PML-N of hypocrisy for criticising PTI founder Imran Khan’s association with the army chief while accepting similar conduct by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He further criticised the government’s handling of ties with neighbouring countries and rejected allegations of JUI-F support for militancy, saying his party had declared taking up arms against the state impermissible and had itself suffered attacks.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026