ISLAMABAD: Cracks appeared in joint opposition in the Senate on Thursday after Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) slammed two mainstream opposition parties Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for their "failure to stand up to the highhandedness of the government."
Speaking on the floor of the House during Senate session presided over by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, General Secretary JUI-F Abdul Ghafoor Haideri minced no words to state that the PML-N and PPP had failed to live up to the public expectations as opposition forces.
"Maryam Nawaz was attacked during her appearance at NAB (National Accountability Bureau) in Lahore on Tuesday but you could not block a single highway of Pakistan in protest?" he asked the PML-N leaders present at the Senate session.
"You should have locked down the entire country. You could not even stage a walkout from this House against what happened to your leader, let alone doing anything else. This is height of shame and embarrassment. Mushahid Ullah Khan is reading out revolutionary poetry and making emotional speeches but you cannot go beyond emotional rhetoric. The time to make tall statements has gone," he said.
In the same vein, the JUI-F leader took on PPP. "You are supporting government's proposed legislation on FATF in total disregard to ground realities- don't worry- it is not for the first time that Pakistan is in FATF's grey list. Let me say with a lot of pain that both PML-N and PPP have failed to meet the public expectations." Haideri then announced to stake a walkout against 'attack' on Maryam Nawaz in Lahore on Tuesday.
Taken aback, the senior leaders of PML-N and PPP, who were not expecting this move from JUI-F, also joined the walkout after Leader of the Opposition in Senate and Chairman PML-N Raja Zafar-ul-Haq announced that the joint opposition would walk out from Senate against Tuesday's incident. The opposition members returned to the House on the request of Leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem who was asked by chairman Senate to bring back the opposition senators.
Earlier, during his speech, Mushahid Ullah Khan from PML-N denied that Maryam Nawaz supporters pelted stones at NAB and law enforcement officials in Lahore and accused the government of attacking PML-N supporters. He said PML-N workers were framed in false cases and sent to jail.
PPP leader and former chairman Senate Raza Rabbani expressed concern over the statement made by Attorney-General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan in the Supreme Court earlier on Wednesday suggesting that different "constitutional and legal options regarding Karachi are under consideration."
This is tantamount to intervention into the affairs of Sindh, Rabbani said adding that the AGP should be summoned in the Senate and asked to explain his statement.
Another PPP senator Moula Bux Chandio accused the federal government of trying to divide Sindh. "This government's federal ministers visit Karachi and they talk about dividing the Sindh. They are up to something heinous," he said.
Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) urged the 'senior' parliamentarians to behave in a responsible manner and avoid naming the leaders of rival political parties. He requested the chairman Senate to play his role in maintaining decorum of the House to bind the senators from launching below-the-belt attacks on one another.
Saif said serious discrepancies surfaced in some parts of Balochistan in the award of scholarships under Ehsaas Programme. The chairman referred the matter to the relevant standing committee.
Meanwhile, five government bills were moved in the Upper House of the Parliament on Thursday and were referred to the relevant Senate standing committees.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, on behalf of the ministers concerned, laid FATF (Financial Action Task Force)-specific The Anti-terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and three other bills- The Islamabad Capital Territory Trust Bill, 2020, The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Azam Swati laid The Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2020. All these bills were passed by the National Assembly earlier on Wednesday.
Different reports were presented in the House including those of Special Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas, Standing Committee on Power regarding effects of Thar Coal Project on local people, Standing Committee on Power regarding policies related to renewable sources of energy, the second and third quarterly reports for the Financial Year 2019-2020 of the Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan's economy.
The Senate will meet again on Monday.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020