ISLAMABAD: Having no serious business to carry out in the National Assembly, Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Monday allowed the members to deliver lengthy speeches on points of order and almost all those who took the floor fully utilised the opportunity to assail the formerly ruling PTI for “creating anarchy-like situation in the country, particularly in the aftermath of the Wazirabad firing incident”.

The most hard-hitting speech was made by Minster for Religious Affairs Mufti Abdul Shakoor who not only termed the attack on former prime minister Imran Khan a “drama”, but also alleged that the PTI had made its veteran senator Azam Swati a “scapegoat for its politicking” and that the party was behind release of his controversial private video.

He said the PTI people were expert in doing such things on social media by tampering and mixing graphics, stating that tomorrow they could also release his or the speaker’s such videos.

Mufti Shakoor, who belongs to JUI-F, said the PTI’s long march had been converted into “a dead body in coffin” and alleged that in order to provide oxygen to its protest the PTI had created the “drama of firing”.

Members given unlimited time for speeches on points of order; house continues proceedings for nearly three hours without quorum

The minister lambasted the PTI’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, alleging that jobs were on sale in the province where the position of scale-I was being sold for Rs0.1 million and the appointment to scale-IV was being made against Rs1m. “The only job of the PTI government in KP is to sell everything and mint money out of every project,” he alleged.

Communications Minister Asad Mehmood, who is the son of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in his nearly hour-long speech, dubbed Imran Khan “an agent of the foreign establishment who had been planted in Pakistan to destabilise the country politically and economically”. After targeting his opponents with his “poisonous tongue” and through registration of fake cases, the minister said, Mr Khan had now started attacking the state institutions. According to Mr Mehmood, various PTI leaders through their contradictory statements about the bullet injuries to Mr Khan had made the whole incident doubtful.

Commenting on the PTI chairman’s allegations against the prime minister, interior minister and an army officer, Mr Mehmood said Imran Khan wanted to become a complainant, prosecutor and the judge at the same time.

He warned Mr Khan against using the youth for his vested interests, stating if other parties gave call to their youth then there would be no peaceful place to live in the country.

The JUI-F leader challenged Mr Khan to dare dissolve the Punjab and KP assemblies to have elections and test his popularity, declaring that the federal government would hold elections on time.

Dr Nafisa Shah of the PPP, while condemning the release of objectionable video of Mr Swati, said the culture of audio and video leaks had been introduced by the previous PTI government itself.

Mehnaz Akbar Aziz of the PML-N termed the PTI’s long march “destructive” for the youth and children who had been witnessing abusive language and hate speeches on their television.

Bashir Mehmood Virk and Dr Nisar Cheema of the PML-N and Hashim Notezai of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal also took Imran Khan to task for his politics of confrontation.

Dr Fehmida Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance criticised the PPP-led Sindh government over its alleged failure to help the flood-affected people. She criticised the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and its provincial chapter in Sindh for abandoning the flood victims.

Newly appointed Law Minister Ayaz Sadiq, however, defended the NDMA and even the Sindh government and said that they had done a remarkable job in providing assistance to flood-hit people.

The government had convened the present session on Nov 3 in haste only to counter the PTI’s long march which was earlier scheduled to enter the capital on Nov 4.

The government has left with no option but to drag the ongoing session after the delay in the long march announced by the PTI leadership following the Wazirabad firing incident.

The speaker adjourned the sitting till Thursday evening at a time when only 11 members were sitting in the 342-member house.

Resolution

Earlier, the National Assembly passed a resolution condemning the arrest of former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Dost Mazari in a “fake land case” by the Anti-Corruption Establishment.

The resolution, read out by PML-N’s Fayazuddin, urged the Punjab government to release Mr Mazari as “he has been framed in a fabricated case for political victimisation”.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2022