The allies of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday came down hard on Prime Minister Imran Khan for his statement that the assets of Reko Diq would be sold out to pay off the loans borrowed by the country. The issue was first raised by Aslam Bhotani - an independent MNA from Balochistan on a calling attention notice.
Bhotani, who otherwise supports the PTI government, voiced concern over the remarks and lamented that despite being resource-rich, Balochistan continues to face problems and deprivations.
He said gas was discovered in Sui, Balochistan in 1952, but not even 10 percent of the people of the province get it till date. Bhotani said the province gets only two percent from the Saindak project, out of which 48 percent and 50 percent goes to the federal government and China respectively.
He claimed that Balochistan produces 2,000MW of electricity against its requirement of 1,200MW but regretted that it gets only 600-700MW and continues to suffer 12-14 hour load shedding in many areas.
Bhotani said Riko Diq belonged to Balochistan and its youth would not tolerate any injustice. "Balochistan is neither a derelict province, nor is it for sale," he remarked.
Some other MNAs from Balochistan also expressed concern over the prime minister's remarks, and Parliamentary Secretary Khiyal Zaman in response agreed that under the 18th Amendment the provinces had the right over their resources.
Sardar Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party (BNP) - an ally of the ruling party, however observed that the answer to the prime minister's remarks was not coming.
"It is not against the 18th amendment," he asked. Mengal said Balochistan's resources had been blatantly looted and asked if it was being considered a conquered area.
He said Rs 300 billion reserves of gold and silver from Balochistan had been sold and the province merely got two percent share out of it.
He said Article 158 of the Constitution continues to be violated. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan in response said the prime minister wanted to rectify the mistakes of the past and was a strong believer of provincial autonomy and rights for the weaker provinces.Later, the opposition in National Assembly created a ruckus, forcing the chair to abruptly call off the session, as minister for communications started criticizing Sharif family members for their "never ending stay in London to avoid courts" in the country and accused the PPP government in Sindh of rampant corruption.
The opposition lawmakers were up in arms after the NA deputy speaker allowed Minister for Communications Murad Saeed to respond to the questions, which had not been raised by anyone in the House.
Paying any heed to the protests by the opposition members, Saeed said, while citing media reports about a PML-N meeting, said that questions being asked by masses have also echoed in an internal meeting of the party.
He said Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif had became a guarantor for his convicted elder brother Nawaz Sharif and now nobody appeared ready to return, adding a number of Sharif family members had fled the country.
"The PML-N had given keys of national kitty to a man (Ishaq Dar) who is a proclaimed offender now," he remarked. He asked Shehbaz Sharif to announce when he was going to stage a comeback.
He criticized Sindh provincial government both for alarmingly high dog bite cases and allocation of hundreds of millions of rupee budget in the name of containing the problem.
He also said the collapse of substandard buildings in Karachi was a recurring problem and said the reason behind this was acute level of corruption. "They have put the lives of people of Karachi at risk," he remarked. He also demanded a commission to probe into the killing of Aziz Memon - a journalist associated with a private Sindhi TV channel. Without naming anybody, he said Memon was receiving threats from a family.
The opposition members, throughout Saeed's speech, kept on pointing out that it was a private members' day and the minister had no right to speak on something that was neither on agenda nor had been raised in the House.
Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri not only allowed the minister to speak his heart out, but told the protesting opposition lawmakers that he will adjourn the House if there will be no order in the House.
Around 80 percent of the agenda could not be taken up as the chair abruptly adjourned the House to meet again on Wednesday (today) at 11am. Some important bills were also introduced in the House.
Junaid Akbar introduced a law binding the members of the national and provincial assemblies to follow party discipline in senate elections and proposing senate elections through show of hands.
The bill was supported by the government. Jam Abdul Karim introduced a bill proposing bar on dual nationality holder civil servants. Akhtar Mengal moved a bill under which only people from Gwadar will be issued CNICs from Gwadar and get registered as voters from there. Shazia Marri of the PPP moved a bill proposing to amend the PPC to define "rape". Another bill aimed at preventing drug use in educational institutes was introduced by Shahida Rehmani.
The bill suggests blood tests of students and rehabilitation of those found drug users. The other bills introduced in the House include, "The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020", "The Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2020", "The Employment of the Unattended Youth Bill, 2020", and the "Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020".The Trade Organizations (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was deferred due to the absence of MNA Sajida Begum, who is the mover of the bill.