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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-N rejected on Saturday the claims made by President Asif Ali Zardari about the government’s achievements and said he was perhaps speaking about some other country.
“There was nothing new in Zardari’s speech other than false claims. (The) PPP has delivered nothing to the nation in four years. The president was talking about developments in some other country, and not in Pakistan,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, told newsmen outside the Parliament House after boycotting the president’s speech.
Federal Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan slammed the opposition and alleged that through sloganeering and boycott, it had actually tried to catch headlines in the media.
Talking to newsmen outside the Parliament House, the minister said at a time when Pakistan People’s Party and its allies were “writing history”, the opposition was doing “politics for drawing media attention and catching headlines”.
Chaudhry Nisar said all opposition parties were united and participated in the protest during the president’s speech and termed it a “remarkable achievement”.
He said that the PPP coalition partners were equally responsible for the “bad governance and worst situation” prevailing in the country.
Replying to a question on the move of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to first announce a boycott of the sitting and then to attend it, he said the MQM was protesting on the extortion issue only to increase its price tag. The whole nation, he said, knew which party had started extortion in Karachi.
The PML-N stalwart accused President Zardari of doing business in the name of reconciliation and said the government allies were receiving their due price for the deal.
He expressed surprise that when the common man was suffering from inflation, unemployment and lawlessness, President Zardari was counting the “so-called achievements”. “Pakistan, where we live in, is in a state of misery.”
Chaudhry Nisar accused President Zardari of completing the agenda left unfulfilled by Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
Justifying the opposition’s strategy of boycotting the president’s speech after raising slogans, he said it would have been a big joke if they had kept listening to the president quietly.
Responding to a question about retirement of ISI Director General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the opposition leader said that he was not sad about the retirement, but “a revolutionary party has been orphaned”, obviously referring to Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.
Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the president in his speech had given a clear roadmap to resolve people’s problems.
When asked to explain the roadmap, she gave a vague reply and said it was based on continuity of parliament, consistency of policies and strengthening of democratic institutions.
“The current parliament has entered its last year. And after completion of its tenure, there would be a smooth transition to the next government through a free, fair and independent election commission. It would happen for the first time in country’s history,” the minister said.
She pointed out that it was also for the first time in the country’s history that all major political parties were in power in one way or the other. Some are in power in the centre, she said, while others were enjoying it in provinces.
The president, Ms Awan said, had set a new tradition by respecting other’s mandate and providing everyone an opportunity to remain in power.
To a question about the PML-N members’ slogans highlighting the issues of poverty, unemployment and price-hike, the minister said all those issues were not new and were mainly provincial subjects. She said the provincial governments shared equal responsibility for such problems.
She said the PML-N was ruling the biggest province and in this way they were also protesting against their own government.
Replying to another query, Ms Awan said the PPP did no believe in confrontation with the judiciary. “We have rendered sacrifices for the restoration of judiciary and we fully know how to respect it. Nobody should dictate us in this regard,” she said.
