The opposition lawmakers in Senate on Friday termed Presidential address to the joint sitting of the Parliament in June this year as disappointing, saying as the head of state, he failed to give policy guidelines on key issues facing the country. Taking part in the debate, they said that the President read out a written speech by his party which lacked substance, as almost all the speech was to praise the policies of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), instead of identifying the areas where improvement is required.
Referring to a statement by President Mamnoon Hussain in which he had termed Panama Papers case as "God-sent", Senator Rehman Malik of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) wished the President could have delivered such a hard-hitting speech during his address to the joint sitting of Parliament. "The President should have at least given some piece of advice to his party government, the way he speaks outside Parliament is wonderful, but I don't know what happened to him when he was addressing the joint sitting," he remarked.
He said that there are guidelines for every institution including the Senate and National Assembly, but why there is no guideline for the address of the President to the joint sitting as he is the head of state, and his speech should not be limited to praising the government.
Hidayatullah, an independent senator from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), said that tribal areas directly come under the administrative control of the President of Pakistan, but he hardly said anything about development of the area expect repeating the rhetoric 'brave tribal people.'
He said that under Article 247, the President is fully empowered to strike down the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) with one stroke of pen, but he is reluctant to do away with it despite demands of the FATA people. Time and again, the people of FATA have been discriminated and their human rights have been trampled upon, he said, adding the delay in implementing FATA reform is testimony of that as tribal people are good for nothing.
He also regretted that Rs 400,000 compensation to temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) for reconstruction of their house is a joke, adding billions of rupees are spent on constructing metro busses across the country but total development budget for FATA is about Rs 400 million, which is deplorable.
As expected, the treasury lawmakers were all praise for the presidential speech and termed it one of the best speeches ever delivered by any president. They said that the President touched almost every sector such as load shedding, terrorism, investment, education, health, etc, which, according to them, showed remarkable improvement after the PML-N came into power in 2013.
Senator Javed Abbasi of PML-N said that the President spoke well on the foreign policy, saying as it is on the right track due to vision of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which proved in the aftermath of US President Donald Trump's recent tough talk against Pakistan, forcing Russia and China to announce their support for Pakistan.
"If we had a flawed foreign policy in place, we would not have been able to muster any support from China and Russia, and again this is because of Nawaz Sharif who is a visionary leader," he claimed. However, he said that population control is the biggest problem Pakistan is facing today and the President should have shed light on it during his speech. To this, Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani asked to bring a calling attention notice in order to know what government is doing to control population.
Senator Khalida Parveen of PPP said that the foreign debts have been doubled, but the President did not suggest anything to expand tax net, curtail foreign borrowing and cut expenditures in order to get rid of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Senator Murtaza Wahab of PPP regretted that the President talked about education, but he should know that it is the federal government which is still not ready to devolve Higher Education Commission (HEC) to provinces in the light of 18th Constitutional Amendment, which is the main reason that hundreds of deserving students are not given scholarships to study abroad.
He also rejected the President's so-called reforms in the health sector, saying the government medicines are sold out at 25 percent inflated rates at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), situated hardly a few kilometres away from the Presidency, what to talk of government hospitals in far-flung areas.
Another PPP Senator Usman Saifullah said that the President should not have shied away from highlighting the challenges facing by the country, adding the President did not criticize the policies of the incumbent government and instead blamed the past policies for the crises in the country. According to him, the country's foreign policy is devoid of imagination, and the President had no suggestion how to streamline it, adding he did not take the government to task for its failure to end power crisis.
"The most important thing was FATA, but the President hardly said anything about development of tribal areas and other issues for which they've been asking for so long, which was again disappointing in the Presidential speech," he regretted. Senator Nighat Mirza of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) blamed that Pakistan has become isolated in the world due to wrong advice of the government's 'Naurattan' (nine gems) like Mughal Emperor Muhammad Akbar. Lieutenant General Abdul Qayyum (retd) of PML-N said, "Education is one of the best investments for a country, a nation, or an individual through which we can achieve our goals and the government should pay special attention to it."