Daily Times

The opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly Friday condemned the legislation made by the House the previous day, saying even “it’s worse than Musharraf era” and the approach damaged the sanctity of the Parliament at home and abroad.

Speaking on a point of order, Khawja Asif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regretted “the way adopted by the house the previous day has never been followed even duing former dictator Pervaiz Musharraf’s era.”

“Whatever was done by the government and its allies on January 13 has no precedent in the past, especially during the past 35 years,” he regretted.

Khawja Asif said the way the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf bulldozed all large number of legislative bills, including the two controversial bills (Finance (Supplementary) Bill 2021 and the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2022), through the parliament had no precedent in the parliamentary history of Pakistan.

Referring to the chair, the PML-N leader said, “You are the custodian of the House, not of the government; you are responsible to maintain the respect of this august House,” but you did not do so.”

Khawaja Asif said the mini-budget would definitely bring an additional burden of Rs350 billion to people in form of taxes whereas inflation was already skyrocketing.

“When you came into power, you made tall claims and commitments to the public for bringing dollars into the country but you sold the whole State Bank to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Instead of fulfilling its claims, the PTI government handed the SBP over to the IMF and generations to come would remember the government for its disloyalty to the country,” he criticized.

He said the government had compromised the economic sovereignty of the country through a controversial legislation.

A member of the treasury benches, Noor Alam Khan, was so annoyed for not being entertained as a backbencher that he said that issues of the country would be resolved amicably if the names of legislators sitting in the first three rows of treasury benches were placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).

“Whether the lawmakers who sat on the backbenches have no right to speak on the floor of the House,” he asked and added “the front three rows of the treasury benches are solely responsible for the worsening situation of the country.

“Put the names of persons who sit in the first three rows (of treasury benches) on the ECL and everything would return to normalcy.”

As it was decided earlier in the session, Friday was the scheduled private member day in the National Assembly but majority of the agenda was left unattended and most of the lawmakers talked on point of order in the House.

Riaz Hussain Pirzada of the PML-N said that first rivers of the country were handed over (to India) and then the matter of Kashmir was surrendered and now the SBP had also been handed over to the IMF.

He said elected people were scolded and unelected persons were honored.

“We have seen convoys of vehicles which were so astonishing that even the PM’s convoy stands nowhere in front of them.”