After earning a bad name for staging a walkout from the Senate that helped the government approve recommendations on controversial General Sales Tax Bill 2010, Pakistan Muslim League-Q announced that it would vote against the bill in the National Assembly.
Adopting a hard-line approach against the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president PML-Q warned party MPs of disqualification if they voted against party policy. "Any parliamentarian from our party who will vote against party policy will be disqualified," announced Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while addressing a press conference at his residence.
He was flanked by the Leader of Opposition in the Senate Wasim Sajjad. Earlier on Friday, PML-Q had staged a token walkout in protest against the RGST just a few moments ahead of voting for the approval of 15 recommendations given by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance.
The PML-N, JUI-F, Jamaat-i-Islami and MQM had strongly opposed the approval of the bill from the upper house amid ferocious protest. The walkout by the PML-Q had given the government a walkover, they said adding, had the PML-Q not done that the numerical strength of opponents of the bill could have prevailed. Chaudhry Shujat Hussain said the real faces of all political parties would come to light in the National Assembly, which was competent enough to pass the money bill.
In order to justify his decision of walkout from the Senate, he said that the Senate had no power to pass the bill and it just passed recommendations on the RGST bill. Shujaat said PML-Q would fiercely oppose the RGST bill in the lower house of the parliament and would resist the proposed legislation by not abstaining from voting.
He said all those parties, which took part in the voting on the RGST bill in the Senate gave legitimacy to the anti-poor legislation. "Muttahida Qaumi Movement ditched us as its leaders had promised the PML-Q that the MQM would stage walkout from the House over voting on the recommendation in exchange for PML-Q''s support for the agriculture tax," he said.
Criticising PML-N, Chaudhry Shujaat said the PML-N senators had endorsed the bill in the committee while the party opposed the recommendations in the House. "We had asked Senator Ishaq Dar to completely reject the RGST bill but he proposed recommendations in it," he said.