The opposition on Tuesday grilled the government for holding a rally in favour of presidential reference against "non functional" Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, accusing that the ruling party had organised the rally by spending public money.
"The ruling party has done what the opposition parties and legal fraternity have been doing against the reference," said PPP-Parliamentarians secretary general Raja Pervez Ashraf. He was speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly. "But the opposition parties are being punished. Their workers and leaders are arrested, and the ruling party is allowed to do whatever it wants by misusing the national wealth", he added.
"The pro-presidential reference rally was carried out by the paid daily wagers," he said and added that steps taken by the ruling party indicate that the government is scared of the uncertain situation arising out of the presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
The opposition parties also brought the government to knees when it successfully submitted a privilege motion against the arrest of PPP-Parliamentarians' MNA Zamarud Khan on Monday night. Naveed Qamar MNA moved the motion and the interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao failed to give any satisfactory response. The speaker National Assembly Chaudhary Amir Hussain referred the motion to the House Standing Committee on privileges.
MNAs Aitzaz Ahsan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Liaqat Baloch, Naheed Khan and others pointed out that the arrest of MNAs without intimation to the Speaker does indicate the law enforcement agencies are responsible to no one. The Parliament is the supreme institution and the police and other agencies are least bothered about it, they said. Aitizaz Ahsan said that the present government was setting traditions, which are unprecedented in the previous governments. Shah Mehmood Qureshi accused that the Punjab police were free to harass or arrest any political worker of his party in the province. Thousands of PPP workers are behind bars without being properly charge sheeted, he said. Naheed Khan said that Zamarrud Khan, PPP worker Qazi Sultan and several others have been languishing in various prisons.
The MNAs from the MMA and PML (N) and other political parties also raised serious concerns over the illegal detention of their leaders. Dr Fareed Paracha of the MMA said that he along with Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri MNA was kept in illegal detention. "We were deprived of clean drinking water and life saving drugs," he accused.
Liaqat Baloch MNA brought the issue of rocket attack on the residence of opposition leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman and his brother Maulana Atta-ur-Rahman to the notice of the house. He accused that this was done by the federal security agencies. This case is not much different from the case when an official of the federal investigation agency was held setting explosives in front the Frontier CM House.
However, the interior minister strongly refuted these allegations and said that the law and order was provincial subject and the provincial government should conduct an inquiry into the incidence. He said that the federal government was ready to cooperate with the provincial government.
MNA Hanif Abbasi also moved a privilege motion against his arrest by the Punjab police. Tehmina Daulatana MNA of the PML (N) said that under what authority a police SHO comes and raids the houses of the parliamentarians from the opposition parties. All the opposition MPs asked the Speaker to admit all the privilege motions and allow an open debate on the issue in the house.
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