Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rejected the federal budget 2011-12, saying that it has been prepared on the dictations of International Monetary Fund (IMF). The PML-N staged strong protest in the National Assembly during Finance Minister budget speech.
The uproar started amid sloganeering soon after the recitation from the Holy Quran, when PML-N lawmaker Khawaja Mohammad Asif was denied floor, as he wanted to speak on a point of order, by Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza terming it against the rules.
This provoked the PML-N members, who got up and gathered in front of the prime minister's chair. It became very difficult for the entire House to listen to the budget speech of Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh due to the high-pitched sloganeering by opposition lawmakers.
The opposition members continued the ear-splitting sloganeering throughout the budget speech, chanting 'No to IMF budget', 'Shame, Shame,' 'Corrupt government, unacceptable', 'American's slavery; unacceptable,' 'Stop telling lies,' 'controversial commission (On Abbottabad incident); unacceptable,' 'stop drone attacks.'
Some interesting incidents were also witnessed during the finance minister speech. PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal presented a piece of bread to Finance Minister during his speech, whereas MNA Tehmina Daultana threw bangles towards the minister.
PML-Q's MNA Marvi Memon, who had sought separate seat on the opposition benches, also joined the protest by PML-N members, who tore the copies of the budget in front of the prime minister's seat. At one stage, the protesting members also gathered in front of Finance Minister and surrounded him chanting slogans. However, some of the members along with government chief whip Syed Khursheed Shah intervened and pushed them back.
Later talking to media outside the parliament house, opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar lashed out at the government, saying that Friday's protest in the house was the start of opposition's move against the government way of governance. "President Zardari has made the country hostage," he said.
He said the opposition wanted to show the rulers the true picture of Pakistan, adding that the economic situation was not the one presented by Finance Minister in his budget speech. He said that the opposition was not ready to listen to the budget speech, which, he said has been prepared on the dictations of IMF.
He said the opposition parties have decided that they would not boycott the budget session rather, would remain in the house to record their 'strong' protest. He stated that budget proposals were already leaked out, therefore, there was no need to present it in the house by the finance minister.
Nisar further said that all the opposition parties in parliament would again meet on Monday to chalk out a joint strategy for the rest of the budget session.
He further said that the government did not have any agenda but it wanted to complete its tenure at any cost, adding that it had no 'will power' to take the country out of the prevailing crises.
Referring to the Abbbottabad operation, Chaudhry Nisar questioned that why the president and the prime minister were tight-lipped on the incident. "What a strange president of the country and a leader of the PPP he is? He also expressed serious reservations over the recent talks held between the civilian and military leadership of the country with the US top officials including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator John Kerry and Admiral Mike Mullen.