Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) on Monday termed the decision of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq biased after he rejected a reference seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

PTI leader Shafqat Mehmood said, “The decision is one sided and against the sanctity of the chair. Whenever, a person becomes speakers of the House, he disassociates himself from party affairs. But in this case, the decision was taken totally one sided and showed strong party commitment.”

He said the opposition parties had filed a reference against the prime minister for his disqualification but the ruling party filed another one against Imran Khan. “Ironically, the reference against the prime minister was rejected while the reference against Imran Khan was sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).”

However, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said the chair was not an investigative agency to investigate into the matter. “I received total eight references against the prime ministers and other parliamentarians and I took the decision after thoroughly study. Now, it is the duty of the Election Commission of Pakistan and courts to make judgment and decide accordingly.”

Earlier, the entire opposition excluding the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) walked out of the House for not allowing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarians to speak on a point of order. Before the walkout, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah said it was constitutional right of the PTI to raise its point. He said that PTI members’ demand was right and must be listened to. He asked the speaker to allow the PTI parliamentarians to raise their concern to which the speaker denied. Later, all opposition parties but the MQM staged a walkout from the House.

Soon after the walkout, Jamshed Dasti pointed towards the speaker and said, “Your decision was controversial. The entire public rejects your decision.” He criticised Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmakers “for their silence” over the issue. He said the Pakistan People’s Party legislators were silenced because they were also involved in major corruption cases and feared that their fate would not be different than that of former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain.

He also accused Defence Minister Khawaja Asif of being involved in corruption scandals. He asked the NA speakers to send the reference against Premier Nawaz to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

However, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif hits back at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and asked the speaker why did he allow the PTI parliamentarians to come back after they had tendered their resignations during the last year sit-in. He claimed that the PTI lawmakers continued to withdraw salaries and other allowances despite tendering resignations. He also accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan of using charity money for political purposes and using abusive language.

Few months ago, names of 259 Pakistanis with links to offshore companies were surfaced in one of the world’s biggest ever data leaks through an online searchable database made public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).