Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The opposition lawmakers on Tuesday again walked out of the National Assembly over government’s refusal to allow live coverage to their speeches on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2017-18.

The opposition said they would attend the proceedings only if speeches were telecast live on the national TV, and even announced to hold their own session outside parliament.

Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah said, “Opposition is firm on its demand that their budget speeches should be given live coverage. Senate chairman has already set the right example in this regard. If opposition’s speeches in Senate can be telecast live then why not in National Assembly?” he questioned.

Khurshid Shah, while recalling days of sit-in by PTI in the D Chowk, said, “Speeches of Khursheed Shah were telecast live in 2014. Every effort was made to please him. But, now they are afraid of the same Khursheed Shah and are refusing to telecast his speech on the budget.”

Shah said attempts to gag the opposition were not in line with the democratic traditions. He said he would only speak on the budgetary proposals if his speech was telecast live on the state media. He said if the government has the discretion to present its point of view, then the opposition also deserves the rights to present its point of view to the nation.

The opposition also hinted at creating issues for the government on the occasion of joint sitting of the parliament on July 1, when president of Pakistan is scheduled to address it. The opposition strongly criticized the government for setting up a new tradition of initiating discussion on the budget from the treasury side against the established norm of giving chance to the opposition to start the debate.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that government members were acting a bit ‘foolish’. They were coming in way of their own government, he added. “This is the same opposition leader they praised in 2014. Why don’t they like him now?” Qureshi asked.

Criticising the government, Qureshi said that when farmers take to the streets to demand their rights, they are charged with batons. Preventing the opposition from expressing its viewpoint on budget is indicative of government’s unsuccessfulness and helplessness.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Sheikh Salahuddin remarked that opposition leader should play an independent role. Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariq Ullah said that the government has once again fallen to its own trap. “Opposition has the right to unite over one topic.”

Responding to remarks of the opposition members, Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain said that Khursheed Shah had played an integral role in raising different issues of national importance. “However, I don’t know what has happened that his behaviour has changed over time. Pakistan People’s Party never telecast opposition leader’s speech live then why are they demanding it now? We had more members then in the opposition but we never created problems for anyone,” he said. During his speech, the opposition members created commotion and started chanting slogans “Go Nawaz Go”. Earlier, an interesting and poetic exchange between Khursheed Shah and Speaker Ayaz Sadiq led to the room roaring with laughter.

Six lawmakers belonging to the PML-N took part in general discussion on the budget for the year 2017-2018. Two PPPP lawmakers pointed out the quorum twice. However, it was found complete on both occasions.

Participating in the discussion after walkout by the entire opposition, PML-N’s Rao Ajmal Khan said that power outages had significantly been reduced and expressed his confidence that these would completely end by the next year.

Ghaus Bakhsh Maher said the government should cut the prices of fertilizer in order to provide relief to the farmers. He said agriculture research institutes should be strengthened so that quality seeds could be prepared domestically.