ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday laid the controversial ordinance converting PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) into a company in the Senate, but the issue led to mudslinging between the ruling PML-N and the main opposition PPP — the two arch rivals of the past.

After a verbal clash between Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and former minister Mushahidullah Khan, the house witnessed an uproar when the treasury and opposition members started shouting and accusing each other of making money through corruption during their tenures in the government.

Mr Ahsan and Mushahidullah also passed some personal remarks against each other and started speaking simultaneously making it difficult for acting chairman Muzaffat Hussain Shah to control the situation.

Also read: Privatisation hits snag as PIA workers walk out in protest

In his apparent reference to the last year protest sit-in by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan said they had committed “a mistake by supporting a corrupt government in September, 2014.”

Mr Ahsan said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government was facing threats from within the party. “The prime minister wants to amicably resolve the issue of the Rangers in Sindh, but one of his ministers does not want to resolve it,” he said in his apparent reference to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

The PPP leader recalled as to how Mushahidullah Khan had to lose his cabinet position after claiming in a BBC interview that the former director general of ISI Zaheerul Islam was behind the plot to destabilise the PML-N government last year. He said similar statements were also issued by another minister, but the sword fell only on Mr Mushahidullah.

Mr Ahsan said he had submitted Rs30 million income tax this year whereas Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had paid only Rs4 million tax.

Responding to the criticism from the opposition over the alleged government’s move to privatise the PIA and some personal remarks against him by Mr Ahsan, PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan held the PPP responsible for the poor state of affairs in the PIA and accused the party of “looting and plundering the national exchequer” during its time in the government.

“What have you done except recruiting people?” he asked.

“These (PPP) people remained busy in doing only corruption. We are busy in clearing the mess created by them in every department,” he said, adding: “Benazir Bhutto had not sacrificed her life to provide you an opportunity to do corruption.”

Mr Mushahidullah, who is known as a firebrand speaker, said despite giving jobs to a large number of people, the PPP could not win the 2013 elections only because it had actually sold these jobs.

He lashed out at the PPP over the issue of the Rangers in Sindh, alleging that the whole party and the provincial government was busy in saving “just one corrupt person”.

He said despite losing cabinet position, he had not withdrawn his statement which he had made during the interview about the role of the former ISI head in the anti-government agitation last year.

Refuting the opposition’s allegations, he said the government had no plan to privatise the PIA and assured the house that no PIA employee would be sacked.

Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq prevented the situation from getting worse at a time when the opposition members were planning to stage a walkout. On Mr Haq’s request of no more discussion on the issue to improve the environment in the house that the two sides finally agreed to end acrimony.

Earlier, soon after laying of the ordinance by Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid, Sherry Rehman of the PPP took the floor and criticised the government for its alleged move to privatise the national flag carrier.

Lashing out at the government for “bypassing” the parliament and doing legislation through ordinances, she alleged that the government’s act of promulgating the ordinance was a step towards privatisation of the PIA.

She warned of street agitation, if the government went ahead with its plan to privatise the PIA. She accused the government of promulgating the ordinance on the dictate of the International Monetary Fund.

Speaking on a calling attention notice, PPP’s Farhatullah Babar called for the appointment of a civilian as national security adviser, instead of a former general.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2015