ISLAMABAD: Four days after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi thanked Senate Opposition Leader Yousuf Raza Gilani over the passage of the controversial State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2022, the former, on Tuesday, unleashed a scathing diatribe on the latter — labelling him a “compromised” leader, who, he said, would “cling” to the opposition leader slot.
“He is not going anywhere — he would cling to the opposition leader slot — he is a compromised leader,” Qureshi said in Senate, referring to the announcement made by Gilani a day earlier that he was quitting the opposition’s top slot in the upper house of the Parliament.
The minister said thrice that opposition leader’s resignation was a “drama”.
Seemingly, the minister took personal affront to Gilani’s “turncoat” remarks made in Senate on Monday, which, many believe, were an obvious reference to the foreign minister and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. Both were formerly associated with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) before they joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — Qureshi in November 2011 and Chaudhry in June 2016.
“Yesterday, the opposition leader made an irresponsible statement regarding the State Bank Bill, which is regrettable. The opposition leader gave several explanations to justify his absence in that important sitting. But many people are not ready to accept his explanations”.
“Is he (Gilani) so naive — that he didn’t have any knowledge about this bill been passed by the National Assembly and it was well scheduled to land in Senate? Was he so unaware?”
Addressing Gilani, Qureshi said: “You should look me right in the eye and then talk — if you are feeling ashamed, then I can hide myself.”
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) is majority party among the opposition in Senate but Gilani managed to become opposition leader, the foreign minister said.
“The N-League was deceived then —it was deceived on Friday and it would be deceived in future as well — that’s my prediction — the opposition leader bought votes to get elected as a senator,” Qureshi alleged.
He said the SBP (Amendment) Bill, 2022 aimed at making the central bank free of political meddling.
“Making State Bank autonomous is not against the constitution. It is not tantamount to undermining Parliament’s supremacy. Parliament’s supremacy is safeguarded and guaranteed by the constitution,” he maintained, adding that both PML-N and PPP brought different amendments in Parliament in their efforts to make SBP autonomous.
Gilani, earlier on Monday, announced to have stepped down as opposition leader.
In his hard-hitting speech on the floor of the house the PPP stalwart slammed the “silence” of his “well-wishers” over the SBP (Amendment) Bill, 2022 controversy.
The PPP leader announced to have sent his resignation to party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Bilawal has rejected his resignation.
The Senate sitting saw high drama on Friday — related to the SBP (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Presented by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, this bill was not referred to the Senate’s relevant committee by the chairman Senate.
Instead, he straightaway allowed voting on the bill which was already passed by National Assembly.
The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the motion to grant leave to introduce the bill had a tie—with 43 votes each in favour and against the bill. The chairman Senate then voted in favour of moving the bill—allowing the bill to be introduced in the Senate with a margin of 44-43.
After the bill was introduced, the voice vote was again held — to determine whether or not the house wanted to pass the bill. This time, 43 votes were in favour of the bill and 42 against it — allowing the SBP (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to sail through the upper house of the Parliament by the slightest margin of one vote.
Gilani was conspicuous by his absence in the crucial Senate sitting. Gilani said he was in Multan to offer condolences to PPP Member National Assembly (MNA) and former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her brother Raza Rabbani Khar, also a PPP MNA, over the death of their father and former MNA Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar.
In a tweet on Friday, after the passage of SBP Bill, the foreign minister wrote, “State Bank Bill passed with 43-42 votes in favour of the government. Thank you to all members of PTI and our allies. We must also thank Leader of the Opposition in Senate Yousuf Raza Gillani who remained absent to support our position.”
Separately, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also “thanked” Gilani for “indirectly” supporting the bill.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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