News
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
PM Gilani ‘stirs up’ opp’s protest in NA* PML-N lawmakers create ruckus in Lower House, keep standing before PM’s seat, resort to severe sloganeering
* PPP lawmakers make protective wall around PM
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) continued its onslaught against the PPP government in Lower House of parliament on Tuesday when its legislators created ruckus by resorting to severe sloganeering and shouting against the rulers.
The PML-N members rushed to the House as soon as they came to know about the arrival of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the House and assembled before his seat and kept raising slogans against him. The proceedings of the House on budget debate remained inaudible because of the protesting lawmakers shouting and sloganeering. However, normalcy returned to the House after the break for Maghrib prayers, as majority of the PML-N members didn’t return from the break. Though PML-N members remained gathered before the seat of Prime Minister Gilani, raising slogans against him, the prime minister appeared to be calm, and put on headphone to listen the speeches of his party’s colleagues on budget. Some members of the PPP stood between the prime minister and agitating PML-N members, forming a protective wall, to stop the opposition members from reaching him.
The backbenchers of the PML-N, as usual, were at the forefront during the protest against the government as the party’s leaders were either missing or kept a low profile. During the budget debate, PPP’s Makhdoom Shahabuddin targeted the opposition, saying its attitude and conduct was regrettable and had lowered the dignity of the House.
On the budget, Shahabuddin hoped that the government would be able to bring inflation down to single digit. While commending the performance of his party’s government, he told the House that the present government had given additional Rs 600 billion to the provinces in the last two years. PPP’s Farzana Raja termed the federal budget good in the present circumstances, and said that the PPP has been endeavouring to fulfil all its promises to the masses.
Speaking on the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which she heads, Raja said that the venture had been such a success that some countries have approached Pakistan for its replication. “At least five countries have written to Foreign Office for adopting the model of BISP,” Raja said. She announced that the government is also going to introduce another programme under which thousands of people in North and South Waziristan agencies would perform Hajj on government expenses.
The commotion by the PML-N lawmakers forced MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar to express inability to speak on the budget. He later said that an out-of-box solution was needed to redress the economic woes of the people. “The conventional way of making the budget would not serve the purpose. We have to go for unconventional ways to provide relief to the masses,” observed Dr Sattar. He noted that the economic crisis was posing a grave threat to democracy because the bad economic situation had compelled people to think how has democracy benefited them.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk