Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) central leader and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that production order is right of Khawaja Saad Rafique and speaker National Assembly should make it clear whether he is under any pressure on this matter or not.
"The speaker should make it clear whether he is issuing production order for Saad Rafique or not. It is very regretful if Prime Minister Imran Khan is pressurizing the speaker for not issuing production order. It is parliamentary tradition that speaker issues production order for any member of the House who is in custody of an agency," he expressed these views while addressing a news conference here on Friday.
He said, "The chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Railways issued the production order for Saad Rafique but the speaker halted it. We respect the speaker. Now the matter is in the court of the speaker. Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser is not independent. It is assembly of Pakistan and not a school. The speaker should tell if he is under any pressure from anyone; and we will not allow such an assembly to run."
The PML-N leader said that democratic traditions are being broken by not issuing production order, adding that the speaker is being made helpless. Answering a question, he said if the speaker does not issue production order for Saad Rafique then the opposition would sit together to decide about it. "Production order is the right of a member of the House and we will get it at any cost," he added. He said that an elected representative has the right to talk about the problems of the people of his constituency in the House.
Answering another question, he said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has raised prices of gas and next month it would again raise the price of electricity.