The opposition parties on Thursday staged a walkout from the National Assembly in protest on some 'persona' remarks of ruling party member Muhammad Tallal Chaudhry against Imran Khan's wife Reham Khan. "Reham Khan uses helicopter like an auto rickshaw," he said while taking part in the budget debate. Following the remarks, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami staged a walkout from the house.
Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement staged a walkout from the house in protest against the statement of Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and the party members also demanded an apology from the minister. "The minister's statement has hurt millions of Muhajir and he should apologise to them," MQM member Asif Hasnain said. Speaking on a point of order, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah said the government should not spoil the budget session by resorting to baseless allegations and personal remarks against opposition members.
"Ishaq Dar has brought the PTI members back to the house after hectic struggle and the PML-N members should understand it," he said, urging the speaker to shut mike of the member who resorts to personal remarks or allegations against a member of the house.
Tallal Chaudhry said that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is responsible for killing of 28 people in his province during the local government elections. This apparently perturbed the PTI members and they started shouting against Chief Minister Punjab as they said the latter is killer of innocent people in Model Town Lahore. "Shahbaz Sharif is a Qatil-e-Ala (chief killer) as he killed innocent people in Lahore," he said. The Chaudhry said the PTI chief Imran Khan's wife Reham Khan has been using the helicopter as an auto-rickshaw while the PTI members gathered in front of the speaker dice, urging him to expunge the words.
"These aren't unparliamentary words," said Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. The Speaker, however, tried to stop Tallal Chaudhry when he started speaking about the PTI rigging allegations in NA-122. Later, the deputy speaker assumed the charge and Tallal Chaudhry was allowed to speak out his mind regarding NA-122, the constituency from where the speaker has won the 2013 general elections on the PML-N ticket. The Chaudhry said that his party would welcome PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the House.
Talking about the PTI members' absence from the house for over 40 days, he said that they are not members of the house and they should be expelled through a vote. As the PTI started walking out, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai urged members not to take up family matters on the floor of the House. He said that harsh words would spoil the friendly environment. "The speaker should have expunged words about Reham .... It is unfair to speak against each others' wives and mothers in the house," he said.
Achakzai said that Pakistan's future lies in democracy and this should be understood by all including army, judiciary and intellectuals. Taking part in the budget debate, PML-N member former Justice Iftikhar Cheema said the government has presented historic budget with Rs 1513 billion development allocations. He, however, urged the government to take some extra-ordinary measures to support farmers and the agriculture sector.
Malik Bashir Awan said that the economy has started improving owing to business-friendly policies of the government while loadshedding has also reduced significantly in rural and urban areas. He said that the opposition should give proposals to improve the budget and governance instead of just resorting to allegations and counter-allegations. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member Dawar Kundi said that the government has been talking about elimination of terrorism and extremism from the country while it has not allocated even a single penny for National and Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA).
He said that the Rangers and Pak army were doing their best to stamp out terrorism but the government is seen nowhere in the efforts. "The government is only focused on building roads and metro-buses ... you should also devise a policy to improve education and health system," he said. Kundi said the PML-N has presented a traditional budget as there was nothing new in it for the common man. Independent member, Malik Amir Dogar criticised the government for its flawed economic policies as he said the government was providing relief and incentives only to industrialists and business tycoons. He said the budget is just a jugglery of words as there is nothing in it for laborers, farmers, technicians and doctors.