ISLAMABAD - The Prime Minister said that there is no threat to the PTI government as long as its stick to its ideology.
While rejecting the criticism of the opposition, he said the government has just completed twenty months in office. He said the opposition is making hue and cry on the performance of the government as more details of their corruption are surfacing and they want to get away with it.
“I often think why Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have sugar mills? Was it to turn black money into white? This government will do inquiries everywhere; we will go after those who exploit the country,” he said.
He also strongly criticized the opposition for their criticism of the government’s economic performance and calling for his resignation. “I have been hearing from 1988 they (opposition leaders) go to the West and say ‘save me, I am liberal and moderate but the rest are extremists. If you don’t save me, the extremists will take over Pakistan,” he said. “They are liberal but only in one way: they are liberally corrupt,” he said, criticizing both Nawaz Sharif and PML-N’s parliamentary leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
Prime Minister, at the end of his speech, said ‘the opposition is worried about his longer stay, as they will be unable to hide their theft,” he said.
“Today you’re here, tomorrow you may not be. I live in my house and bear all my own expenses except travel and security. I do this so that I am not scared about leaving the chair and don’t have to compromise on my morals,” he said.
The premier also advised the young parliamentarians to not be scared of leaving the chair. “No one can topple our party and government as long as we stand on our principles and ideology,” he said the leadership in past proved harmful for country.
The prime minister said he lived in his own house and was bearing all his domestic expenditures without fear of losing the office. The opposition’s hopes of ‘minus one’ could not succeed, and in case he did not remain in office, the other members of his party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) would not spare those elements tainted with corruption and money laundering cases, he added.
As regards Pakistan Peoples’ Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, the prime minister said he got the party’s leadership without any struggle. “Jub barish hota hai tou pani ata hai, aur jub bohat barish hota hai to bohat pani ata hai,” he mimicked the PPP leader.
OPPPOSITION BOYCOT
The opposition walked from the proceedings of the house when the treasury benches members [Ministers] were presenting supplementary grants. The house witnessed verbal brawl between the government and opposition members throughout the day. PPP-P’s Naveed Qamar, a senior even-tempered member, at one stage got emotional and threatened that he was ready to engage in physical fight.
The opposition rejecting the recent increase in petroleum prices and supplementary grants also left the house in protest. The House on the last day of budget session was informed that the supplementary budget in the last year of the PML (N) government was six hundred billion rupees. “This government reduced it to four hundred and fifty billion rupees in the first fiscal year,” said the minister.