Legislators from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) staged a walkout from National Assembly proceedings on Thursday over delay in a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight that was supposed to take PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to Quetta, terming the delay a conspiracy by the authorities to stop their party’s chief from visiting Balochistan. PML-N National Assembly Member (MNA) Abdul Qadir Baloch, on a point of order, registered a protest against what he said was an inordinate delay of the Quetta-bound flight that barred his party chief from attending a public gathering. Accusing the government of manipulating the delay in the flight, Baloch, along with other PML-N colleagues, staged a walkout.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chief Whip in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah expressed disappointment over the walkout, saying the PML-N legislators should have heard the government’s response before choosing to leave the hall. Shah said if Nawaz needed to leave for Balochistan so urgently, he could have taken the Punjab chief minister’s plane instead of waiting for the PIA flight. “It is not our tradition to stop leaders from visiting any part of the country. I recommend Nawaz Sharif to visit Balochistan and stay there for two months. We will provide him with all necessary requirements,” he maintained.
Shah said leaders did not need aeroplanes to take them to a certain destination, instead they were supposed to start their journey by road, or on foot if the need arose. Rejecting the allegation by PML-N members, Shah said it would tarnish the image of no one but their own leadership.He urged the PML-N legislators to shun political point-scoring, which he said would not do any good to their party and which neither the people nor the media would believe.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary for Industries Pir Haider Ali Shah told the National Assembly that there was no shortage of fertiliser in the country and 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser had already been imported for the current season. Responding to a Calling Attention Notice raised by Malik Shakir Bashir Awan, Nisar Tanveer and others regarding an increase in the prices of fertilisers and the government’s failure to release the subsidy announced in fiscal year 2010-2011, Haider said that the prices of fertilisers were increased because of gas shortage and the sales tax. Fertiliser factories had remained closed for 45 days in the winter because of shortage of gas, he added. He said currently fertiliser was available at Rs 1,300 per bag and the price would fall to Rs 240 per bag if the required gas was provided to fertiliser companies. He said the prime minister had told the provinces to stop further increase in the prices of fertiliser and the finance minister had also assured that the prices would remain stable. The parliamentary secretary said the Rs 1 billion subsidy announced in the current fiscal year for fertiliser had been transferred to food and agriculture departments of the provinces. He urged the provincial governments to control hoarding of fertiliser in their respective provinces.
