The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) finally assumed on Friday the role of a “real opposition”, launching for the first time a fully-loaded attack on the government and creating the worst ruckus ever seen in the incumbent National Assembly (NA), with all its members shouting anti-government slogans and rejecting the federal budget as “anti-people”.
As Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh began his budget speech, the PML-N’s Khawaja Asif wanted to speak on a point of order and when Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza did not allow him to do so, all PML-N members moved closer to the minister’s desk and started shouting and forced all treasury members to put on headphones to listen to the finance minister’s speech.
The PML-N members chanted “Corrupt government unacceptable!”, “Slavery of US unacceptable!”, “Respect the judiciary!”, “Respect parliament!”, “IMF budget unacceptable”, among a host of other slogans. At one stage, when PML-N women parliamentarians tried to advance towards Sheikh, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan to take the seat adjacent to Sheikh’s so she could foil any possible attack of any kind on the finance minister by the female PML-N lawmakers.
On the prime minister’s direction, Syed Khurshid Shah also sought Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar’s help, who then asked his party’s lawmakers to maintain distance from Sheikh. Despite the prime minister’s keen efforts to avert any mishap with Sheikh, PML-N’s Tehmina Daultana, in a swift move, threw bangles at the finance minister, and Ahsan Iqbal suddenly appeared to hand a loaf of bread to him. The PML-N’s rowdy protest at one stage compelled the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry to lose her temper and she confronted the PML-N women lawmakers, challenging them to a brawl.
Gilani, however, cooled Nasim down and asked her to sit quietly beside him. Senior Minister Pervaiz Elahi and the rest of PML-Quaid were quite embarrassed when a disgruntled Marvi Memon joined the protesting PML-N, wielding budget documents from which she was providing leaves to angry PML-N lawmakers to tear. With the permission of Elahi, another PML-Q lawmaker Shahnaz Sheikh daringly went straight to Marvi and snatched the papers from Marvi’s hands, a feat that earned her the senior minister’s approval.
After the finance minister finished his budget speech, the prime minister visibly heaved a sigh of relief and went to the minister with a smile on his face to congratulate him on bracing the fully-charged opposition’s onslaught. Later, addressing a press conference at Parliament House, Nisar said the PML-N’s violent reaction during the budget speech was actually against the style of governance. “President (Asif Ali) Zardari has taken parliament and the country hostage. The prime minister and the finance minister wanted to paint a false picture of Pakistan but we were portraying the true picture of the masses’ problems,” he said.
He said it was a budget prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nisar said the PML-N had taken extreme steps against the government’s obstinate approach of neglecting democracy and parliament. “We have come to the conclusion that the government does not care about democratic norms. The PM should have taken the nation into confidence over the May 2 incident,” he said. He said the unanimous resolution had been passed by the joint sitting of parliament on the PML-N’s initiative.
“But the government threw the resolution in the bin on (US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and (US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman) Mike Mullen’s visit… It is an insult of parliament… Now things will not remain as smooth and easy for the government as they used to be in the past,” he said. He said intelligence agencies were picking up people in broad daylight while the government was creating hurdles for an independent judiciary. “This government just wants to complete its tenure and lacks the capability to end the people’s suffering,” he said.
Parliament, pandemonium, PML-N
