Ruckus continues in NA for second day

ISLAMABAD: Ruckus and sloganeering continued for the second day of the National Assembly session on Thursday, as soon as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi took up the podium to speak about his privilege motion on the issue of the Panama Leaks.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers disrupted Qureshi’s speech prompting National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to intervene. The Speaker pleaded the treasury benches to maintain order in the house.
‘I am confused about terming you a speaker as I am seeing not a speaker, a custodian of this august house but a PML-N loyalist on the chair,’ said Qureshi.
Amid verbal protest from PML-N members, Qureshi continued to speak and raised the issue of Panama papers and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement in court.
‘You rejected our privilege motion without listening to our viewpoint. You allowed opposition member of one party (PPP) to speak on point of order but usurped the other party (PTI) right to speak,’ said Qureshi.
‘I would have presented my point of view on the privilege motion submitted by my party if you had given me 10 minutes after Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah spoke yesterday,’ said Qureshi.
‘If this was done yesterday then what happened yesterday would not have happened.’
The PTI leader said he has seen the speaker coming under pressure from the government. He added that he will respect Ayaz Sadiq of he is neutral, but will not refer to him as the ‘speaker’ if he sides with the government.
Referring to Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique earlier comments, in which he called lawmakers from the PTI as ‘hooligans’, he said, ‘Ministry of Railways referred to our protest yesterday as noise by ‘PTI’s hooligans’. This is all on record and it’s all over the news.’
The speaker countered and said he will get the word ‘hooligans’ expunged from the house’s records.
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said he is an elected official and it is his duty to remain unbiased in his role as the speaker of the house.
‘When I was deseated, I went to the public instead of the court,’ he said, adding that he was restored to his position and it was only possible to the courts and democracy.
‘I always try to be as fair as possible. I will never present a rebuttal here because I do not want a back and forth. It’s undignified,’ said Sadiq.
Saad Rafique said he had read the transcript from Wednesday’s session and reacted when PTI MNAs used abusive language against the prime minister and the speaker.
‘I admit I used the word hooliganism.’
‘I unintentionally disrespected you and I take my words back,’ Rafique added addressing Qureshi.
‘Criticise us as much as you want. But please do not use expletives, threatening words against us,’ Rafique added the PML-N stalwart.
The railways minister further asked PTI to take back indecent words you have used against our prime minister and our political workers.
Rafique, referring to the Panama Papers, said the parliament can not be made in to the Supreme Court neither can the court be made in to the parliament.
‘We can sit together and discuss how we can discuss Panama Papers in the parliament. There are ways that we can find to discuss it further in the parliament,’ said the PML-N minister.
‘We knew you (PTI) will go to the court, which is why we issued a statement in the Parliament to explain our position to our fellow parliamentarians,’ Rafique added.
‘We did not go to the court, you did. You promised us you will take back your allegation that the elections were rigged, but once it was proven in your, you still did not withdraw your allegations,’ Rafique said.
‘Everyone named in Panama Papers was set aside but the PM was singled out,’ the railways minister added further.
The PML-N minister clarified that the ruling party will not settle the matter of Panama Papers till a verdict is announced by the Supreme Court, as they do not want to approach the 2018 general elections under the shadow of the controversy.
‘We do not want to enter the 2018 elections with a case hanging on our head. We want a decision ourselves.’
‘You raise allegations but never provide evidence to prove them,’ he added.
Khursheed Shah said he will address his privilege motion in the next session of the parliament. The speaker adjourned the parliament, next session on Dec 16 at 10:30am. NNI