ISLAMABAD: Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif was greeted by loud jeers, slogans and whistles from the treasury members when he started his speech on federal budget.
As PTI lawmakers surrounded the opposition leader, PMLN lawmakers and other opposition members formed a protective circle around him. The jeering and slogans got louder as Shehbaz Sharif took aim at the government.
قومی اسمبلی کے آج کے اجلاس میں میری ویڈیو سوشل میڈیا پر وائرل ہوئی ہے لیکن تصویر کا دوسرا رخ اس ویڈیو میں دیکھا جا سکتا ہے گالی گلوچ ن لیگی ارکان نے شروع کی اور ہمارے ارکان کو دھکے دیے میرا ری ایکشن عمل کا رد عمل تھا تصویر کے دونوں رخ دیکھنے ضروری ہیں pic.twitter.com/CcvCQWwQg5
— Ali Awan (@AliAwanPTI) June 15, 2021
“Imran Khan promised 10 million jobs. Where are those jobs? Where are the $300 billion that were supposed to be brought back to the country from abroad,” he asked. Continuing to lash out at the government, he said that Imran Khan’s claims of eliminating corruption were hollow.
Pakistan was suffering from the worst form of corruption today, he said, adding that no act of posting or transferring someone these days is done without an element of corruption these days. He criticized the budget, saying it had failed to provide relief to the masses amid spiraling unemployment and inflation.
Today the whole nation saw on their TV screens how the ruling party resorted to hooliganism & even naked abuse. Only goes to show how ethically shallow IK and his whole party are and how PTI has turned into a fascist and abusive party. Unfortunate!
— Shehbaz Sharif (القدس في العيون) (@CMShehbaz) June 15, 2021
Speaker Asad Qaiser kept interjecting, requesting lawmakers on the treasury benches to refrain from shouting while the opposition leader spoke. However, no one listened and the opposition leader continued, wearing headphones to drown out the noise. “They accuse us of generating useless power,” he said.
“If that is the case, why are people suffering from loadshedding these days,” he asked. Shehbaz Sharif said that during the government of his brother, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan had set up power plants across the country and ended the menace of loadshedding.
This is the reality of the ‘Naya Pakistan’ Imran Khan has created. This is a reflection of his fascist mindset. He will leave no stone unturned to paralyse parliament and weaken democracy. Throwing budget books at the opposition. This is Imran Khan’s ‘Riyaasat-e-Madina’. https://t.co/FaOtgaIR7Z pic.twitter.com/wQbJ895OA1
— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) June 15, 2021
He said the country was heading towards economic prosperity then, whereas now, everything was on the decline, even the per capita income. As Shehbaz Sharif spoke, tempers rose when the government and opposition lawmakers came face-to-face. In a video clip, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Ali Nawaz Awan can be seen, responding in kind to abusive language by a PMLN lawmaker.
A woman lawmaker tried to pull the ruling party MNA away from the group of legislators who were shoving each other. He can be seen in the video, throwing a booklet at the PMLN leader and shouting angrily at him. Federal ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Fawad Chaudhry were also seen standing by their seats.
In another video clip, another minister Ali Amin Gandapur can be seen, exchanging words with the opposition lawmakers. After Ali Nawaz Awan’s video went viral, the PTI leader posted a rebuttal on Twitter, sharing a video in which a few PMLN lawmakers can be heard chanting abusive slogans against the government.