ISLAMABAD: Rowdyism marred the National Assembly proceedings on Monday when the opposition and the treasury members once again indulged in a blame-game and through fiery speeches and slogans called each other “traitors”.

The opposition members lodged a strong noisy protest and demanded an apology from Foreign Minister Shah Meh­mood Qureshi for calling them traitors and accusing them of fulfilling the enemy’s agenda.

Amid sloganeering by the members from both sides of the aisle, Ahsan Iqbal of the Pakis­tan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lashed out at Mr Qur­eshi and said the nation had come to know as to how India had managed to “gulp” Kashmir.

“He [Mr Qureshi] has dec­lared the whole opposition an Indian agent. I am a Pakistani. I have been elected by the patriotic people of Narowal. Every­one sitting here has come here after securing votes of patriotic Pakistanis. We will pull the tongue of those who will make traitor allegations,” Mr Iqbal said, declaring that they would not let the house run without tendering of an apology by the foreign minister.

PML-N leader in NA demands apology from foreign minister

Interestingly, the members from both sides raised almost similar slogans, including “Modi ka jo yaar hai, ghaddar hai ghaddar hai”, against each other during the sitting. The ruckus initially began when both the government and the opposition presented their own versions of the resolution to condemn the republication of blasphemous caricatures in France and the opposition pressed Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri to put the resolution for a vote.

After hurriedly reading out the resolution, PML-N parliame­ntary leader Khawaja Asif said the government did not have numbers in the house which was evident from the fact that the National Assembly had failed to carry its proceedings most of the times due to a lack of quorum. He also criticised the deputy spe­aker for not giving him the floor in the previous two sittings.

“We have been tolerating all this, but not much time is left with you now,” he said, adding that the government was about to be sent packing.

“Such naked association of the chair with the government is not acceptable,” Mr Asif said while asking the deputy speaker and the speaker to play an impartial role.

“This government cannot even do legislation. You [the treasury] even need the selectors for doing legislation,” he said, adding that “everyone knows as to who was behind FATF legislation. Even the speaker knows it”.

The PML-N lawmaker said the opposition fully cooperated with the government on legislation regarding the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), but despite all this, the rulers failed to bring Pakistan out of the grey list.

“Pakistan’s constitution and law are in danger,” he said, claiming that dozens of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members were in contact with the PML-N.

Mr Asif also blasted the government over the recent arrest of retired Capt Safdar in Karachi. Amid slogans of “shame, shame”, he termed the alleged kidnapping of the inspector general (IG) of Sindh police a “bad omen” for the federation and an attack by the Centre on the province. He said that already there was no writ of the government in 80 per cent of Balochistan.

Taking the floor, Foreign Minister Qureshi criticised the opposition for doing politics on the caricature issue. He said the PML-N was taunting the present government over the FATF legislation and had forgotten that Pakistan was pushed into the grey list during the previous PML-N government.

Responding to Khawaja Asif’s claim about lack of numbers in parliament, Mr Qureshi said the opposition had made similar claims at the time of the passage of the federal budget and FATF legislation during the joint sitting.

He said those who attacked democratic institutions in the past were now talking about democracy. He alleged that the opposition had started the democracy mantra after failing in its attempt to strike a deal.

“Who is promoting the enemy’s narrative by creating differences within the armed forces of Pakistan which had successfully eliminated terrorism [from the country]? Who is making Pakistan’s institution controversial? Who is speaking [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s language?” he asked.

He said the opposition should feel ashamed for allowing the raising of slogan “independent Balochistan” from its platform and in the same province.

When Khawaja Asif stood up to protest over the minister’s remarks, Mr Qureshi commented that “it seems that Modi’s spirit has entered his body as Indian narrative is in their ghutti.”

The opposition members kept on raising slogans ‘lota, lota’, a term used for turncoats, during Mr Qureshi’s speech who became angry and declared that if the opposition did not allow him to speak, the treasury members would also not allow any of its members to speak in the assembly.

After the opposition’s refusal to support the government’s resolution on the blasphemy issue, the deputy speaker suspended the proceedings and invited the two sides for talks on the issue.

The move proved fruitful, with Foreign Minister Qureshi returning to announce that the government and opposition members had agreed on a unanimous resolution by clubbing their two versions.

Sindh, Balochistan islands

Later, speaking on a point of order, independent MNA from Lasbela-Gwadar Aslam Bhootani, who is sitting on the treasury benches, joined his voice with the opposition in criticising the government’s move to take control of Sindh and Balochistan islands through a controversial presidential ordinance.

“We have not come here to sell off Balochistan’s interests. We have the right on our islands. The people of Lasbela and Gwadar have the right on their islands,” he asserted.

Mr Bhootani also alleged that the people of Gwadar and Lasbela were not getting any benefit out of the billions of rupees worth China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. He also asked the government to stop National Logistic Cell from acquiring lands in the province as this action could deprive the people of their livelihood who were involved in some trade activities with Iran in the area.

Mr Bhootani said he had also sought the help from the military leadership as “the military leadership is looking after most of the affairs in Balochistan than the civil government”.

The National Assembly was then adjourned till Wednesday morning without taking up any agenda item.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2020