ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party yesterday said the federal government had failed to run the country. Speaking to journalists here, PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman lambasted the federal government over its alleged incompetence.
“The opposition is in no mood to indulge the federal government. They can arrest whoever they want. They can make a new Pakistan. The Opposition in Pakistan has no conditions from them,” she said. She added: “This government has politicised everything and is practicing illiberal values at the same time. They requested us to help them on few bills as they wanted to speed up the process. Normally this would have been done five months ago through the standing committees but they disregarded all deadlines. We have no idea how they are running the country.”
Criticising the government for undermining the sanctity of the Parliament, Senator Rehman said the federal government does not know how to use the Parliament nor the Parliamentary committees. “Not even for their own or the country’s benefit; they only know how to do politics of abuse, political disunity and division,” she added. Sherry Rehman said the Supreme Court’s judgment on NAB had made things pretty clear and “if they think we are asking for an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) then they are badly mistaken.”
She said the federal government was trying to make Pakistan into a police state and is hiding behind the Financial Action Task Force. “There are no powers to arrest at an investigative stage. You cannot arrest people for years and do their media trails outside. This is not how it’s done. On the other hand, their cronies with corruption charges are scot-free,” she said when speaking about NAB.
The PPP Parliamentary leader in the Senate said it was the federal government which “called us to discuss NAB and made these parliamentary committees. It was not done by the opposition. If changing the narrative was part of their plan, well now it has clearly backfired.”
She said the PPP will work on any bill for Pakistan’s security with no conditions, but “we won’t have our amendments arbitrarily thrown aside.”
Senator Sherry Rehman said the country can only be run through the Parliament and it was obvious that the government cannot run the country.
“We have always said that when they want to run the country through a fair democratic manner, we will be there. But now we have no demands from them,” she said.