Pakistan Peoples Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Monday staged a token walkout from the National Assembly over killing of a PPP worker in Azad and Jammu Kashmir election rally. Speaking on the issue, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah said the PML-N government has been using force to win the Kashmir elections.
The government wants to repeat politics of the 1990s, he said, adding that if proper investigation of Model Town massacre was carried out, this wouldn't have happened in Kashmir. Members of the JI, PPP and PTI also kept chanting vociferous slogans against the government for what they called 'atrocities against the innocent people.'
Shah said the federal government has been sending a wrong message to the international community too by using foul language against Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir. He said that if Model Town like incident could have happened in Sindh, no MNA of the PPP would have been sitting here in the Parliament.
The opposition leader also criticised the government for its poor handling of the PIA privatisation. Responding to it, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid said the Azad Kashmir government has launched a crackdown against the PML-N workers to suppress them before the elections. He said the irresponsible statements of Prime Minister Azad Kashmir have led to chaos and anarchy in the territory.
The minister said the Kashmir government has formed a judicial commission to probe killing of a person there during the election rally and the federal government has welcomed the move. "We should wait for a report of the judicial commission and refrain from politicizing the incident," he said, adding the Azad Kashmir government should also mend its ways to normalize the situation.
Opposition members kept pestering the minister and other members of treasury benches during debate on the issue as they chanted slogans against the government. PPP member Ejaz Jakhrani said that his party saved the PML-N government during the PTI dharna but "they (the government) have now started biting us for saving the democracy.'
He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet members should tender an apology to the Kashmiri people for violence over there instead of sticking to aggression and belligerence. The opposition member also gave tough time to the government over Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (amendment) Ordinance, 2015. Validity of the ordinance was lapsed on February 11 but the government wanted to get it extended for another 120 days through the National Assembly.
The opposition members said that three deputy mayors of Islamabad have been elected on Monday under the expired Ordinance and this could render the whole election process illegal and null and void. Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid, however, said that there are precedents of getting the laws passed from the Parliament in retrospective; therefore there is nothing illegal in granting extension to the Ordinance too. "Going by past precedents, I'm putting it (the Ordinance) to the House," said Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. The Ordinance was extended for 120 days through majority voting of 75 against 69.