Daily Times

Terming the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government incompetent, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday said the common person is drowning in the tsunami of inflation while the government lacks any plan, mission or vision to tackle the situation.

“This government has no plan, no mission and no vision,” the PPP chief said while speaking at the floor of National Assembly amid protesting noises by the treasury benches. He lashed out at the PTI-led government’s economic policies and said the government itself is the reason behind increase in petrol, gas and electricity prices.

“Laborers, farmers and pensioners are being economically murdered. Common man is suffering due to inflation,” he said. “People are dying and the government does not even let the masses cry,” he added, and demanded that the government appraise the parliament about deal with the International Monitory Fund (IMF). “No bailout package will be accepted if it is not approved by the parliament,” he reiterated.

The PPP chairman said the country is nearing bankruptcy due to government’s inability, and not because of the 18th Amendment. “Sindh is the only province that has collected its taxes. When there is no direction, the government gets confused and then suddenly the finance minister and State Bank governor are changed. It looks like the government has surrendered the ministry of finance, State Bank and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to the IMF,” he said.

In his address, the PPP chairman reiterated his demand that the ministers having links with the proscribed organisations should be ousted. He said the nation is quite perplexed and wants to know who is ruling the nation in reality. He said the nation is facing the brunt of the incompetent government. He said the government has no vision and is focusing instead on censorship, intimidation through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and filing cases.

Bilawal’s comments drew the ire of the treasury benches, at which he said, “This government beats [the public] and doesn’t even let them cry. A protest against inflation was held in South Punjab but instead of heeding the grievances of the protesters, the ‘zaalim’ (cruel) government had them arrested.”

Speaker Asad Qaiser, however, had the word ‘zaalim’ expunged from the record. “Mr Speaker, you should not expunge the truth,” Bilawal responded. He claimed that the government filed a first information report against a PPP member in South Waziristan and withdrew the security of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl president Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

“What kind of Naya Pakistan is this? What kind of munafiqat [hypocrisy] is this?” he asked. When Speaker Qaiser asked that the word ‘munafiqat’ be also expunged, Bilawal pointed out that ‘munafiqat’ is an Urdu word and that it is not non-parliamentary. He then clarified that he meant ‘hypocrisy’.

Bilawal also responded to the protesting treasury members – despite Speaker Qaiser’s repeated instructions to address him only – and said, “Why don’t you understand that constructive criticism is in the government’s favour? Instead of censoring [criticism], lodging FIRs and sending to people to jail, [government should] watch, listen and learn.”

Opposition members got disgruntled during the session as Murad Saeed was allowed to speak first while Khawaja Asif wasn’t. They surrounded the dais of the speaker and kept causing commotion during Murad Saeed’s speech. Opposition started protesting after Murad Saeed took the mike to respond to speech of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto.

Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed called opposition members as servants and said Bilawal is an accidental chairman of the PPP. “We will not allow them to talk too if they will not listen to answers … opposition has no courage to listen to the answers,” he said.

The PTI stalwart further said a member from Larkana has expressed his views in assembly, adding that they were expecting that he would discuss the cases of AIDS in his constituency. “We wanted to talk on the issue of AIDS in Larkana. At least they should listen to our questions,” he added.

In his emotional speech, Murad asserted that Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeatedly said that government will not grant NRO to anyone. He said Bilawal is asking for NRO but he will get nothing.

During proceeding of the National Assembly, Speaker Asad Qaiser directed the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan to take action against immoral websites and submit report within 15 days. He said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) should be directed to suspend all such websites which are spreading immoral material.

Ali Muhammad Khan said the Pakistan Television has maintained the country s culture and social norms in telecasting its programs. He said there is a censor board at the PTV to monitor the contents of programs regularly. He said that Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) is responsible to monitor the private channels and their content. He said a team of PEMRA regularly monitors all private channels to have a check on release of any inappropriate material. He said it is responsibility of everyone to telecast programs in accordance with the social and cultural values of the country.

Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the House during the question hour that PIA has launched new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha, Lahore-Bangkok, Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-Al Ain and Multan-Sharjah. He said that PIA is also increasing frequency and capacity on profitable routes like Jeddah and Madinah especially from Faisalabad.