News
Friday, December 16, 2011
PML-N, ANP want Pasha to quit over ‘attempt to dislodge govt’* ANP walks out of Senate after refusal to hold debate over role of DG ISI
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday felt the heat of the prevailing political temperature when the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) resorted to fierce rhetoric to counter each other marked with the call for resignation of ISI Director General Ahmad Shuja Pasha by the Awami National Party (ANP) member over alleged plot to oust the government that was backed by Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
The first day of the 37th session of the lower house saw the barbs flying between the political opponents with the outspoken lawmaker of ANP’s parliamentarian Bushra Gohar’s demand for resignation of the ISI director general over his alleged plot to oust the PPP government as disclosed by mastermind of infamous memogate scandal Mansoor Ijaz.
Gohar said that ISI director general should resign from his position as the former ambassador Husain Haqqani was made to do so on the allegations when the memo case surfaced. “How can an issue could be flimsy when the same was being portrayed true,” Gohar questioned.
She said that if Haqqani set a good precedent by resigning from the office it should be followed by the others who had been alleged in another case to conduct the transparent investigation and asked the Chaudhry Nisar to put the same demand.
Taking the floor, Chaudhry Nisar backed the demand of Bushra Gohar. However, he made it clear that he never asked for the resignation of Haqqani. “I simply demanded for the fair probe from the government,” Nisar replied.
He disclosed that it was his party, the PML-N, which pressed the ISI director general to resign on May 2 incident in a joint session of parliament and said that it was the responsibility of the government to seek resign from the ISI director general, if it needed.
He, however, termed the ISI director general’s disclosure by Mansoor Ijaz to topple the government fabricated one and questioned why the government had not clarified it so far. “I don’t think that ISI director general is unwise one to seek the help from the Arab countries,” Nisar remarked.
Earlier, PML-N and PPP came hard against each other when Chaudhry Nisar and PPP’s stalwart Qamaruzaman Kaira and later PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi went for bashing of each other’s political parties.
He, however, pointed out that conspiracy was not being planned from anywhere else but this government was bent up destroying itself and said that the PML-N had not become the part of any conspiracy three years ago and would not do in the future.
He also lambasted the government for poor handling of the President Asif Zardari’s illness and felt that confusion had not been spread by the media or the opposition but the contradictory statements of the people of the ruling party had created this mess.
The cool-headed Kaira, responding to Nisar’s speech, took to task the PML-N, saying that the government has neither hidden anything nor will on Zardari’s illness and criticised the opposition for making an issue of the illness of the president.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk