Former prime minister and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was shocked to hear reports that opposition members of the Punjab Assembly were barred from attending the session in a bid to silence them from playing their parliamentary role. Opposition members raised questions concerning rampant corruption in the Punjab government, she said, adding to silence them, they were banned from attending the session by the Punjab Assembly Speaker on Saturday and Friday for 15 days.
Those barred included six members of the PPP namely Farzana Raja, Uzma Bokhari, Pervez Rafiq, Ishtaq Ahmad Mirza, Muhammad Ashraf Khan and Samiullah Khan and Shaikh Ijaz Ahmad of PML(N).
Benazir Bhutto said the parliament was for the accountability of public administration. It is the duty of the elected representatives to raise issues of public concern and receive answers for the same.
She pointed out that in England, the prime minister personally appears to answer questions put by the Opposition.
Benazir said the banning of members of parliament for raising questions was evidence that Islamabad was a dictatorship which was unrepresentative and unanswerable to the people.
The PPP chairperson said that the regime was exploiting the war on terror to seize the democratic and constitutional rights of the people of Pakistan.
A day earlier on Thursday also the Speaker banned PML-N parliamentary party leader Rana Sanaullah Khan and MPA Rana Mashhud from attending the session for 15 days.
The combined opposition in the National Assembly on Friday also staged a walkout from the House proceedings against suspension of the membership of Punjab Assembly lawmakers. During the opposition's walkout, the NA Speaker bulldozed the budget.
In a statement on Sunday, the former prime minister said the suspension of lawmakers was proof that the October 2002 elections had failed to produce a democratic system run according to democratic values.
She said the political system produced by October 2002 elections had failed to deliver which was why fresh elections open to all parties and personalities was the need of the hour.
Benazir said the unpopular and unrepresentative regime was resting on repression and suppression and good governance had been sacrificed at the alter of ambition and lust for power.
She recalled that just a few days ago in a blatant case of political victimisation Sindh MPA Zahid Bhurguri of the PPP was arrested on terrorism charges, saying that the regime, which claimed to be fighting a war on terrorism, was making a mockery of anti-terrorist laws by using them against peaceful, political and elected representatives.
Such actions, she said, betrayed the frustration of the regime for its failure to take over the Pakistan People's Party and subordinate it to the will of the forces of dictatorship.
The PPP chairperson said this new wave of repression was the result of the Party standing by the people in refusing the dictation of the regime for Benazir to abdicate leadership of the PPP, stay in exile until after the elections of 2007, and accept the 17th amendment.
She said the sentencing of Pir Mukarram, the harassment of MPAs Shamim Ara and Farheen Mohgul, the breaking of her constituency and the PPP districts in Sindh and the dismissal of PPP mayors were all part of the campaign of terror.
She said that such tactics would not deter the opposition members who would continue their struggle for democracy.
The former prime minister said it was a sad day in the history of Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam's Pakistan had been usurped in an attempt to turn the country into a garrison state where the people were exploited, oppressed, deprived, discriminated, unemployed, and forced to commit suicides because they could not afford to feed their families.
She praised the suspended parliamentarians for their strong spirit and willpower which enabled them to defy the dictators and raise issues of public concern.
Benazir said this was the age of democracy and dictatorship was bound to end with the support of the people.
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