ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan has no time and the people will hold him accountable.
Speaking at a news conference here, Bilawal said the whole budget session was an insult to the people. “Due to the role of the government and the attitude of the speaker, what should have happened did not happen. We were deprived of our rights, we could not even bring a record. The people want to hear what is happening in Lahore, Quetta, Karachi and Multan. You have to give a three-year record, you are lecturing us, and you are trying to fool the nation. All the ministers are cheering on this kind of budget,” he said.
The PPP Chairman said that every step taken by the government was benefitting the rich not the poor. “Assembly employees are committing suicide. The people for the past three years have been hearing the same thing over and over again. The public doesn’t want to hear about the NRO and how bad it was before. You have given tax amnesty for these people. This budget is also NRO, there is relief for the rich and distress for the poor. The people must have confidence in the state and democracy. You are giving arrest powers in the name of FBR,” he said.
The Chairman PPP said that the PM should give account for past three years, not say what he will do next. Now the Prime Minister has no time, the people will hold him accountable. “We will hold you accountable for all these wrongdoings. Instead of telling stories, the speech should tell us the solution to problems,” he remarked.
Bilawal claimed that Speaker Asad Qaiser had been the worst speaker in the country’s parliamentary history.
“Leader of the House means accountable to the nation and parliament. Shehbaz Sharif could not attend the session due to a death in his family. It is hoped that JUI-F and the PML-N will issue show cause notices to their members. Will send notices to members who were not in the House,” he said.
Earlier, the House witnessed fiery speeches between PPP-P’s Co- Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Qureshi, responding to the concerns raised by Bilawal Bhutto, said that the PPP Chairman had levelled allegations of violating Parliamentary tradition.
He questioned, “What are you talking about? In Sindh, where you have the government, you did not allow the Opposition leader to speak.”
However, Bilawal left the House when Shah Mahmood Qureshi was responding to him. “The NA Speaker is the custodian of the House. You [Bilawal] can have reservations about the Speaker’s decision, but you take it up in his chamber. You don’t confront them on the floor of the House,” he said.
The Minister also criticized PPP-P for violating the Parliamentary norms in Sindh Assembly. He further said that the Opposition would not be able to suppress the government by making noise. PPP-P Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his speech, said that the government rigged yesterday’s vote on the federal budget.
“According to the rules, the NA Speaker was obligated to carry out a count when a voice vote was challenged,” he stated.
Apparently taking the foreign minister’s criticism as a personal affront, Bilawal hit back at Qureshi, saying he was criticising the party that had made him the foreign minister and the president of the party’s Punjab chapter.
“The extent to which we know the learned member from Multan, you don’t,” the PPP leader said while referring to Qureshi. He added that Prime Minister Imran had “yet to find out what kind of a person he (Qureshi) is”.
He said that the Sindh Assembly speaker had banned opposition lawmakers for creating a ruckus. “The Pakistan resolution was passed from the Sindh Assembly,” he said, adding that the opposition had not presented a single cut motion during provincial budget proceedings. “This shows you their seriousness.”
“The prime minister should tell the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to tap Qureshi’s phone. When he was the foreign minister during the PPP’s government, he used to campaign in the world asking to make him premier instead of Yousuf Raza Gilani,” he said.