‘Memogate’ puts Gilani on the back foot in NA

The memo controversy finally echoed in the National Assembly on Thursday with Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan raising five fundamental questions about the scandal, while Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani came up with half-answers to dodge basic queries, annoying the opposition and triggering an exchange of allegations between the treasury benches and the opposition members that finally led to a walkout by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members from the proceedings in protest against the government’s “non-serious approach”.
Allegation after allegation marred the assembly proceedings, which also echoed with slogans of “urea thieves” and “bakery thieves” from both sides of the political divide. An otherwise senior and serious Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Minister Khurshid Shah also grilled the media for siding with the corrupt, saying: “When it is about writing the truth, the journalists’ pens run dry but once someone fills their pens with ink, they start writing”.
FIVE QUESTIONS: Speaking on a point of order, Nisar raised five questions about the memogate scandal. He asked the government to explain why it kept claiming for the past six months that there was no truth to the memo controversy and no one was involved in the scam; why Husain Haqqani had resigned if he was not involved in the controversy; why the army had barred Haqqani from going back to the US; why a new envoy was appointed immediately and why Haqqani was not given a chance to clarify his position; why the defence minister implicated his own prime minister into the controversy, and why did the prime minister not tell the House about the way forward. Nisar also alleged that the government was not serious in removing Haqqani and the resignation had been sought after the army chief intervened and pushed the government.
Responding to the allegations, Gilani said he had already assured the House that the ambassador would be summoned and an enquiry would be held into the matter. He said the meeting that questioned Haqqani was held at Prime Minister’s House and not the Presidency and had taken place in broad daylight, not quietly in the darkness of the night.
He said the army chief and intelligence chief had joined him in a meeting with a UK delegation on strategic dialogue at 1pm and following the meeting, Haqqani was summoned and he told the former ambassador to hand in his resignation so there was no chance he could influence the enquiry. He said the decision was taken in principle to ensure a fair trial into the memo controversy because of national security concerns.
“Now the matter is with the enquiry committee for a fair probe and since the PML-N has already taken the matter to the Supreme Court, further details cannot be shared [with the House] because the matter is sub judice. To satisfy the House, I think it would be better to prove to all stakeholders that there is an opportunity here for a fair trial,” he added.
About the statement of Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, Gilani said Mukhtar had meant that the prime minister would take the final decision in the matter. He said the minister would also explain his position before the House in person. He said the government and the ambassador had such cordial relations with the US government that they did not need a third person to convey a message.
Dissatisfied with the prime minister’s explanation, Nisar once again took the floor and said the government did not seek resignation from Haqqani until a military motorcade had visited the Presidency twice and the government summoned the ambassador under pressure from General Headquarters (GHQ).
“The decisions taken at the midnight meeting between the president, prime minister, army chief and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) director general should be announced on the floor of the House,” the opposition leader said, adding that the issue was far from its conclusion.
“If this government had the courage to seek resignations from its officials after they had been accused [of wrongdoing], it would have sought resignations from corrupt and NRO-tainted ministers whose cases are in court; it could have sought resignations after the Abbottabad incident, PNS Mehran attack, etc. But no one was asked to resign in the past four years,” said Nisar, adding that if Haqqani was innocent, he would not have resigned but faced the enquiry. He urged the premier to give a specific timeframe of the enquiry into the memogate scandal.
TREASURY BINS ALLEGATIONS: Nisar’s assertions triggered a heated debate, with Khurshid Shah responding to the allegations. Shah said the ruling party had never compromised on principles and the prime minister was only answerable to the House and no one else.
“We don’t meet anyone in the darkness of the night. We are not answerable to any army general, this government made generals answerable to this House. No politician went to the GHQ to answer queries,” he said.
Nisar shot back that Supreme Court orders were not being respected. “The defence minister never speaks on drone attacks but now he is pointing fingers at the prime minister,” he said, adding that the government continued to deny the memo issue for six weeks. Farahnaz Ispahani also said that all allegations were false and that she would move the US court, said Nisar, but then Haqqani resigned within three days and Sherry Rehman was appointed the new ambassador to the US within hours.
“He was also not allowed to leave for America by the army when he desired,” Nisar said, adding that the army chief had met the president and then held a meeting with the prime minister and in the third meeting, Haqqani’s resignation was sought. Nisar said the PML-N leadership had to move the Supreme Court on the matter since parliament had been turned into a rubber stamp. Khurshid Shah once again responded to the allegations made by Nisar, which shifted the focus from memogate. He reminded Nisar that from 1977 to 2000, his party had faced court cases but never attacked the courts despite being given punishments in false cases. Warning the PML-N that its corruption in Punjab would be exposed, Shah said political point-scoring would not do anyone any good.
Nisar responded by questioning who had termed the courts “Kangaroo courts”. He said the government was non-serious and parliament had become meaningless so there was no purpose for his party to sit in the House. With these remarks, PML-N members staged a walkout from the House proceedings.
Shah once again rose and called the PML-N leaders “bakery thieves” who had taken the Punjab government Rs 80 billion in debt. “When (former Punjab chief minister) Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi left the government, Punjab was a rich province with Rs 17 billion in hand. But they (the PML-N) have made it a defaulter,” he said.
Later, Minister of State for Industries and Defence Production Bahadur Khan Sehar told the House that provincial mismanagement had resulted in shortage of urea across the country, especially in Punjab.