News
Saturday, August 17, 2013
‘Islamabad drama’ debate reaches NAISLAMABAD: Amid slogans of “shame, shame” in the lower house, the opposition parties particularly Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Friday came down hard on the government for its failure to act against gunman who brought the federal capital to a standstill for hours on Thursday.
The treasury benches also seemed helpless against the onslaught of opposition when the relevant ministers particularly Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan remained away from the proceedings leaving the back benchers of the party to respond. PPP leader Zamrud Khan, who played a pivotal role to end the “drama” in the capital also received praise from the party legislators as well as from MQM’ MNA Nabeel Gabol for his courage. The short time available to the opposition members due to Friday prayer saw “fiery remarks from PPP’s legislator Syed Naveed Qamar and PTI’s Shah Mahmood Querashi with the latter terming the episode as “dangerous and shameful”.
On demand of the opposition benches, government assured the house to respond in detail on the incident on Monday when Speaker Ayaz Sadiq asked the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab to come up with the reply.
PPP leader Naveed Qamar criticized Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for his absence from the house and said an armed man paralysed the government and its failure prompted Zamurud to intervene.
He noted that Islamabad incident was not merely a security failure but also reflected a poor decision making to act against such elements. Qamar said barriers and pickets were of no use when there was no preparedness to fight terrorism.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said it seemed a leaderless government was operating in the country. He added on the one hand that government said it would take the opposition on board while chalking out national security policy while on the other hand, it was not even ready to listen to the opposition. Criticizing the interior minister, Shah said he should have come into the session to inform the house about this particular issue and felt that government appeared helpless to protect the lives of people. tanveer ahmed
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk