The ongoing debate on power crisis in the National Assembly turned into a brawl between the PPP and PML-N parliamentarians on Thursday when two lawmakers from the rival parties started passing derogatory remarks about the central leadership of other’s party.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement remained absent from he House for the second consecutive day.
The brawl was spearheaded by an exchange of harsh remarks between PPP’s Nadeem Afzal Chan and PML-N’s Rana Taveer and led to an even harsher argument between Abid Sher Ali and Fauzia Wahab.
Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi expunged some of the remarks passed by Chan and Tanveer from the proceedings. Chan criticised the PML-N members for using derogatory remarks against President Asif Ali Zardari over the issue of load shedding. “We would not use such language which is being used against president,” he said, adding that the property tax of the Raiwind palace was just Rs 0.5 million.
He said the Ashiyana Housing Scheme was being illegally constructed on land owned by the evacuee trust, adding that Dengue fever had exposed the efficiency of the PML-N leadership.
Chan said the ransacking and arson of public property over electricity load shedding was highly unfortunate and politically motivated.
He criticised the Punjab government for not taking any concrete step to deal with the dengue fever in the province.
On the other hand Rana Tanveer of the PML-N said despite being in power for more than three years, the government had failed to overcome the electricity shortage.
He said besides utilising the existing generation capacity, the government should have undertaken short and long-term measures to produce cheap electricity.
The PPP Chief Whip and Minister for Religious Affairs Khursheed Shah tried to cool temperatures and requested the legislators from both sides to avoid passing unethical remarks at each other’s leaders. “Issues cannot be resolved with emotions….Please come up with solid suggestions on the topic of debate,” he added.
Taking part in debate on power crisis and price hike in petroleum products, PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi criticised the government for power and gas load shedding and price hike, saying the problems of the people had multiplied under the PPP government.
Abbasi said the government had lost its credibility due to corruption, bad governance, unemployment, power and gas load shedding, price hike and law and order.
Mian Javed said the people had great expectations from the PPP-led government, but it had failed to come up to the expectations of the nation. He said the nation wanted an independent Pakistan and nobody should be allowed to violate the country’s sovereignty in the name of drone attacks.
Javed said Dengue virus was curable but the Babar Awan and Rehman Malik viruses were incurable.
Abdul Qayyum Jatoi said load shedding was a technical problem which would be addressed through various projects that were underway and some were in the pipeline.
He said those criticising the PPP-led government had themselves failed to address the problems of the people, especially those in southern Punjab.
Owais Leghari said agricultural growth was declining for the last several years due to load shedding and increase in the prices of petroleum products. He said the circular debt was increasing with each passing day and the government had failed to maintain it at a level, adding that line losses had also increased alarmingly due to the inefficiency of WAPDA and its employees.
Justice (r) Fakharun Nisa Khokar said the prime minister should resign if he could not deliver.
“If the custodian of the House can’t deliver, he has no right to remain the prime minister… the president has given all powers to the prime minister,” she said.
Mehreen Anwar Raja said the present government had started power sector reforms and the results would be visible very soon.
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