ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi regretted the role of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser in the police action at Parliament Lodges and also asked public servants to stop taking unlawful instructions from Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers.
Talking to reporters, Abbasi said that speaker was supposed to be the custodian of the House and had a responsibility to prove his neutrality, adding he should ensure that no member had any reservation about his “bias”.
“The Speaker must answer to the question, whether police raided the residence of Salahuddin Ayubi, JUI-F’s MNA after getting his permission or not?...We are waiting to get an answer from him,” he said, adding the government needs to compete the opposition’s no-confidence motion within the house and not on the streets.
“If they want to compete the move outside the parliament, then the responsibility of whatever consequences would be on the shoulders of the prime minister and his ministers,” he said, adding the people were not ready to “tolerate” that government anymore.
“The no-confidence motion has been tabled and if you have the courage! call the session of the House tomorrow (Saturday). We are even ready for the session on Sunday,” he challenged the government.
He also accused the government of escaping from the voting on the no-confidence motion, adding: “we will not let them escape, as they wanted to create anarchy in the country and the attack on the lodges was its first evidence.”
Abbasi also urged the government servants to stop taking unlawful orders from the prime minister and his minister, adding they were the public servants and not the personal servants of Imran Khan and his ministers. “If you commit any unlawful act today, you will have to be made answerable for that tomorrow,” he warned the government servants.
He further urged the government servants to stay away from interfering in the process of no-confidence motion and act only on the lawful orders. “We want them [the government servants] to be mindful and don’t force us to name you…I also want to ask Secretary Interior, Inspector General Police, Islamabad, if any other unlawful act ever happens again, you will have to be made answerable,” he further warned.
Talking about the NAB’s notice to Azhar Qayyum Nahra, PML-N MNA from Gujranwala, Abbasi said that Nahra never had held any public office in his life and had already faced two inquiries and got another one when the process of no-confidence motion started.
“Remember, whether you are chairman NAB, Secretary Interior, IG Police Islamabad, or commissioner and deputy commissioner of Islamabad…Or whatever public office you’re holding, you must remember that you will have to be made answerable for any unlawful act,” he further warned, adding there was no major crime than attacking the parliament and its members.
He also stated that speaker also had no immunity in the Constitution, adding: “If he commits any unlawful act, he would also be made answerable.” To a question about the privilege motion moved by his party against the police operation in Parliament Lodges, Abbasi said they were waiting to get any answer from the speaker as to whether the police took the action after getting his permission or not.
About the presence of Ansaarul Islam’s volunteers in parliament lodges at the time of operation, he denied presence of any armed opposition parties’ workers in the lodges, adding they had arrived in the lodges on getting permission of their concerned MNAs.
He said that neither police nor anybody else could stop the members from meeting or inviting their workers to the lodges. “Were they holding any weapon? Although, armed people are roaming around here and there no body asks them. Who has authorised you to attack a residence of the MNA when anybody or workers come to meet him for a cup of tea? Did the speaker make any telephone call to Salahuddin Ayubi? Only seven people had come to meet the MNA. Is it terrorism if seven people come to have a cup of tea with the MNA?” he asked.
To a query about the reported strategy of the government to stop its members from the process of voting on the no-trust motion, Abbasi said that nobody could stop the members from the process of voting and if anybody tried to stop them, it would be a violation of the Constitution and any such act would invoke Article 6 of the Constitution against him.
Responding to another question about the prime minister’s announcement to hold a rally in Islamabad a day before the House commences its session on the no-confidence motion as well as any possible confrontation, he said that do the government wants to decide the no-trust move on the streets. “Hold more than 100 rallies, but more than 172 members will vote against you,” he further asked the prime minister.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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