ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that by taking the matter of Speaker’s ruling to the apex court opposition had undermined sanctity of the Parliament and political matters should be tackled in a political way in political arena.
Talking to media persons after a meeting with Maulana Fazlur Rehman here at his residence, the prime minister said he had discussed with Maulana issues relating to the budget.
However, sources in the government said PPP was trying to woo JUI-F and other political parties in the Parliament to confront the expected uproar by PML-N in the Parliament during budget session.
The fresh disturbance in relations of ruling PPP with MQM on various issues necessitated Prime Minister Gilani to rush to Maulana, who so far has facilitated the PPP in crucial times and would likely help it bail out from the prevailing situation.
The prime minister was all praise to the JUI-F chief’s politics and said he was great admirer of Maulana and the positive role he has been playing for the promotion of democracy and strengthening of democratic institutions. Gilani said giving relief to the public in the upcoming budget was government’s priority.
He said PPP and allies had two-third majority in the Parliament and every citizen wanted to listen to the budget speech.
To a question about opposition’s move to challenge ruling of the NA Speaker in the Supreme Court, he said PPP did not take political matters to the courts and they preferred to resolve the same in political arena.
He said the opposition undermined the parliament and its supremacy by taking the issue to the court.
The opposition should have held the Parliament sacred, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said his party had always taken a serious and balanced stance on political issues.
To a question about challenging Speaker’s ruling in the Supreme Court, Maulana said they would respect court’s verdict and added that everybody should have waited for the courts and other equivalent institutions to take decisions and should not have triggered a controversy over the serious matters ahead of its fallout from the court of law.
He avoided to comment on Speaker’s ruling saying they would wait for the court decision and did not want to become party to the matter.
To another question, Maulana said they had complaints regarding slackness to execute mega development projects in their constituencies and he had raised the issue in the meeting with Prime Minister Gilani. He referred some of the major projects including Chashma Right Bank Canal, which were unduly delayed during the PPP rule.