News
Friday, November 18, 2011
PML-N, MQM walk out of NA, for their own reasons* PML-N accuses govt of destroying democratic system
* MQM says it has been supporting Zardari by taking out rallies in his favour but govt has given a ‘corrupt and murderer’ official protocol
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The opposition, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and government ally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), with diametric political ideologies had one thing in common on Thursday - both staged walkouts of the Lower House of Parliament against treasury benches for their respective grievances.
Though, the PML-N returned to the House following the efforts of Syed Naveed Qamar and Qamaruzzman Kaira, the coalition partner of the PPP government, the MQM, was so estranged with the protocol given to former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza at the airport before his departure to London that it went for complete boycott of the House proceedings.
The session disposing of the legislative business smoothly witnessed some heat at the fag end of the proceedings when Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali and MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi, on points of order, lashed out at the government for their respective complaints and apathy of the government to resolve the national issues. The government also managed to get the Industrial Relations Ordinance bill passed with the consent of the PML-N, which was withheld in the last session when the PML-N objected to it by calling for limiting it to Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) instead of expanding it to provinces as it was against the constitution.
PML-N’s legal wizard Zahid Hamid regretted that despite the commitment of extending this ordinance, the people had been gathered outside parliament against him, who were raising slogans against him by portraying him as an anti-labour person.
Before leading the walkout, Nisar deplored that despite the pledge of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the House the other day, no federal minister was presented in the House to explain the shortage of fertiliser in the country.
He said that this situation of turning parliament into rubberstamp would not be tolerated. Nisar criticised for what he alleged the bad intention of the government to gather the labourers in front of parliament against the PML-N, which objected to the passage of Industrial Relations Ordinance in the House last day purely on the constitutional grounds. Nisar asked the government to refrain from such confrontational policies as the PML-N could manage a big assembly of people in front of the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s House.
He accused the government of destroying the democratic system, adding that the record level corruption by the government has set the worst precedent ever in the history of the country.
MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi, on his turn, said that the MQM had been pressed to lodge the protest as at one hand it had been supporting President Zardari and democracy by taking out rallies, and on the other hand a ‘corrupt and murderer’ had been given the official protocol, an apparent reference to Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, who he said was accompanied by provincial ministers of the PPP.
PML-N’s Khurram Dastagir Khan called for clearly reply from the government regarding a controversial memo allegedly sent to the US officials by President Zardari, as was reported in a foreign newspaper and said that such deals were unacceptable.
Responding to Khurram’s allegations, PPP’s Fauzia Wahab said that some forces were bent upon destabilising the present system by spreading false reports.
PML-N’s Rana Tanveerul Hassan said that the government had been exploiting the crisis to prolong its rule, but it was in turn bringing a bad name to the entire political system and parliament.
The National Assembly passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2011 unanimously, which seeks to provide adequate punishment to halt damage or destruction of oil and gas pipelines by acts of subversion and to protect the assets of the national significance. It also adopted the Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill 2011. The session was adjourned to meet again today (Friday) at 10am.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk