With the death toll in Balochistan earthquake crossing the 328 mark, the members of the Lower House of parliament on Wednesday adopted a unanimous resolution to condole and sympathise with the bereaved families over the tragedy which had brought the already fragile Balochistan government on its knees.
They also asked the federal and Balochistan governments to wake up from a deep slumber and double the efforts of rescue and relief across the affected areas.
During the lacklustre session, legislators from major opposition parties including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) staged a walkout from the proceedings against what they called the “non-serious attitude” of the government towards the human catastrophe in Balochistan.
A resolution was also moved by the opposition’s lawmaker Shazia Marri that was supported not only by other opposition parties but the treasury benches also responded positively.
The House also echoed with the demand of a review of blasphemy law when a member of the opposition, Syed Gohar Shah, said there was no need to review the law.
Launching a tirade against federal and Balochistan governments, Leader of the Opposition Khurshid Shah referred to the empty treasury benches, saying that it reflected how much the government was concerned about the quake-affected people dying in Balochistan.
Amid slogans of “shame shame”, Shah said the federal government had yet not shared any information on the loss of life and property in the disaster-hit areas.
He wondered if Balochistan was not part of Pakistan, adding “why the (PML-N) government is silent on such a huge disaster”?
Shah said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have appealed to friendly states at the United Nations (UN) seeking their assistance in the relief of the quake-hit people of Balochistan.
He hoped the prime minister would hold a press conference at the UN headquarters over this issue.
The PPP leader said the apathy of the government towards the natural calamity was sending a very “wrong message” to the Baloch people. He asked all organs of the federal government, including the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) and other such bodies to redouble rescue and relief work.
Later, Shah led a walkout from the House, flowed by the PTI and the Jamaat-e-Islami lawmakers. However, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) did not support the move.
Though Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab made an attempt to counter Shah’s attack, he failed to make any impact.
Rejecting the “observations” of the opposition benches about non-serious attitude of the government, Aftab said the government was well aware of the intensity of the Balochistan tragedy and army medical core teams had been sent to the affected areas.
He said the federal government was in touch with the Balochistan government and soon the details would be shared with the House.
Following this failed attempt, PML-N’s loudmouth Saad Rafique made an attempt to respond to the arguments made by Shah.
Strongly reacting to the opposition’s walkout, Saad wondered how could such an attitude help the quake-hit people of Balochistan.
He accused the opposition parties of walking out of the House just to grab the media’s attention.
Accusing the previous government, Saad said the PPP leaders had plundered the national wealth during their tenure and Asif Zardari’s party had put the country in a lot of trouble.
Later, when the opposition lawmakers returned to the House, PTI’s Deputy Parliamentary Leader Shah Mahmood Quereshi said the government should have briefed the House with a clear picture on the Balochistan earthquake.
He said the ruling coalition in Balochistan had failed to even finalise the cabinet, adding that that only three ministers could not oversee the relief activities of the most deprived province of the country
Qureshi said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should have returned and dealt with the situation rather than staying in the US.
Earlier, PTI President Javed Hashmi again challenged the government’s claim of paying Rs five million for his treatment abroad during the past tenure, and asked the government to come clean over the subject to set the record straight.
Responding to his point, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan confirmed that Hashmi had never accepted the amount. He, however, asserted that the money had been withdrawn from the treasurer, adding that there was no record as to who had withdrew it in Hashmi’s name.
Nisar said the record of billions of rupees withdrawn in the name of prime minister’s discretionary fund, ERRA and other accounts was also missing.
However, he claimed that the government had institutionalised all funds to ensure that the money drawn from the national exchequer was not misused.
Hashmi regretted that if embezzlements were made in the name of parliamentarians, who would care to cater to the rights of the poor of the country.
Sardar Awais Leghari, on a point of order, drew the attention of the House over the Indian violation of 1991 water accord, asking the government to take notice of the matter and raise the issue at some proper forum.
He said experts had been claiming that future wars would be fought for water but the government was yet to take any practical step to raise the matter.
