Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The combined opposition in the National Assembly on Monday staged a walkout after Opposition Leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah rejected the prime minister’s speech and said the speech created more confusion than clarity.

Shah said the opposition gave seven questions to the prime minister and asked him to answer these questions during his address to the National Assembly, but he did not answer even a single question. He said that rather the speech created 70 more questions about prime minister’s factories in Dubai and Jeddah. He said the nation wanted the prime minister to answer the questions relating to the reports of the Panama Papers, but he presented some other facts during his speech in the National Assembly and this was not acceptable to the opposition. “We don’t come here to shout at each other; we want answers to our questions,” he said. He said there was no reason to sit in the House in this situation, and announced a walk out.

Opposition leaders Shah and Imran Khan talked to the media after the walkout. Shah said, “We asked seven innocent questions and wanted similar answers, but the prime minister’s speech made these seven into 70 questions.” He said that prime minister’s speech contained details, which were not even part of the seven questions asked by the opposition.

“We thought Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will simply give an explanation about his offshore firms and his London flats, but we were again made to hear stories about his Jeddah and Dubai businesses,” Shah said. Therefore, he said, the opposition walked out of the assembly. “We did not wish to waste the nation’s time by delivering useless speeches,” he said. He said that people were the best judges of Sharif’s speech. The opposition leaders then announced they would meet at 10am on Tuesday to discuss the future line of action.

Just after Shah’s speech, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq invited Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to address the House, but all opposition members, including Khan, walked out of the House.

Speaking on the occasion, PPP Senator and leader of the opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said, “Nawaz Sharif deliberately ignored the questions about the ownership of the flats in London and the money used to purchase the property.”

Khan said the prime minister did not need to deliver such a long speech and he could have simply showed the documents of the possession of the offshore company. Showing some documents to the media, Khan said “the first flat was bought in 1993, the second and third were bought in 1995, the fourth was bought in 1996 and the fifth in 2004”.

Responding to the prime minister’s statement that he was not directly named in the Panama Papers, Khan showed Sharif’s tax returns and said, “The papers say PM’s daughter Maryam Nawaz is dependant on him, and the ‘dependant’ owns two offshore firms.” “How can a dependant own such a huge amount of money to buy offshore firms, as Maryam owns two. This means it was Sharif’s money,” Khan said. From 1981 to 1993, the average income of Sharif was Rs 22,600 per month and this is what he declared. Khan said that prime minister’s speech was not based on facts.