• Bilawal says there is ‘PTIMF’ govt in country
• 26th Constitution Amendment Bill could not be passed as opposition seeks more time

ISLAMABAD: It was a rare scene to watch — the treasury members led by a government minister disrupting the National Assembly proceedings on Thursday, forcing their own Speaker Asad Qaiser to hurriedly adjourn the sitting till Friday morning (today).

And this happened on the day when the government and the opposition were jointly making efforts to unanimously pass the 26th Constitution Amendment Bill that seeks to increase the number of seats for erstwhile tribal areas in the National Assembly and in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly.

The bill, however, could not be passed after the opposition refused to vote for it without a thorough debate, and also sought some amendments to it.

The house witnessed pandemonium when the opposition members lodged a strong protest over the speaker’s act of refusing the floor to newly-nominated parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Khawaja Asif, providing full opportunity to mercurial Communications Minis­ter Murad Saeed to respond to the speech of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in which he had lashed out at the government’s economic policies and a “sudden decision” of Prime Minister Imran Khan to change his economic team allegedly at the behest of the Interna­tional Monetary Fund (IMF).

The opposition members gathered in front of the speaker’s dais and raised full-throated slogans against the government throughout the minister’s speech which could not be heard clearly in the galleries.

Mr Saeed made some personal attacks on Mr Bhutto-Zardari and targeted the PPP-led Sindh government in his speech. He also declared that if the opposition legislators would continue to shout, the ruling party’s members would not allow them to speak in the house.

The speaker kept on asking the opposition members to go back to their seats and promised that he would give the floor to Khawaja Asif after the minister’s speech, but they refused to obey the visibly angry speaker who suspended the proceedings for 15 minutes after switching off the minister’s mike.

During the break, the minister was seen lobbying with members of the treasury benches, including Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, telling them that they should also not allow Khawaja Asif to speak.

When the speaker returned to the house, there was no change in the situation. But this time the treasury members led by Mr Saeed were protesting, knowing that the speaker would give the floor to Khawaja Asif.

When the speaker asked the firebrand PML-N MNA to deliver his speech, he intelligently refused to do so, thus foiling the treasury members’ move to shout down his speech. Seeing Khawaja Asif not taking the floor, the speaker adjourned the sitting immediately.

Earlier, Mr Bhutto-Zardari in his speech, which was frequently interrupted by the treasury members, said the way the government had suddenly removed its finance minister, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor and the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had raised many questions. He said the prime minister had appointed his new adviser on finance and the SBP governor despite the fact that he had never met them before their appointment, indicating that perhaps they had been nominated by the IMF.

The PPP chairman called the present government a “PTIMF government”, alleging that the government had compromised “economic and national sovereignty” of the country by making these appointments and it had completely surrendered before the IMF.

Referring to the ongoing government-IMF talks on a bailout package, he said the people were worried to see “IMF negotiating with IMF”.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari also lashed out at the prime minister over his recent remarks that the federal government had become bankrupt due to the 18th Constitution Amendment and termed it an “attack on the federation.” In fact, he said, the provinces had become bankrupt due to the “failed” economic policies of the rulers.

The PPP chairman said the people were facing the brunt of the “incompetence” of the present government which had failed to meet its revenue target.

Mr Bhutto Zardari said they would not accept any deal with the IMF, if its approval was not sought from parliament.

The PPP chairman said the prime minister had attended the sitting on Wednesday, but regretted that he did not make any statement on the suicide attack that took place in Lahore. He said they were expecting that the prime minister would give a message to the nation that the government would eliminate terrorism from the country, but that did not happen.

PPP-PML-N talks

During the session, a delegation of the PML-N called on the PPP chairman at the latter’s office and discussed the strategy over the 26th Constitution Amendment Bill, which the government wanted to present before the house for its passage through a supplementary agenda.

The PML-N delegation comprised former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Ayaz Sadiq, Saad Rafique, Rana Sanaullah and Marriyum Aurangzeb. PPP’s Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar were also present.

Sources said the opposition in principle decided to support the bill which had been tabled by independent member from tribal areas Mohsin Dawar and which was being supported by all the members from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Talking to Dawn, Ms Aurangzeb said they wanted to have a thorough debate on the bill as they could not vote on such a crucial bill without reviewing it properly. She said they might introduce some amendments to the bill which was introduced in the house by the government after suspending the rules.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019