ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Demanding resignation of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the opposition on Thursday blocked the National Assembly proceedings to press for a debate on the Supreme Court ruling that has scrapped the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills.
“Resign, resign”, opposition members chanted about the prime minister during a furore before the government agreed to a debate on the judgment, which says the PSM’s sale to a three-party consortium for Rs21.6 billion was done in ‘indecent haste’ casting doubts about its transparency and ignoring the profitability of the country’s largest industrial unit.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain invited two representatives each of all political parties in the house to meet him on Friday morning to set a time for the debate on the issue, which the opposition plans to cite as one of the grounds for a no-confidence move to be brought against Mr Aziz on Aug 23.
The opposition called for an immediate debate on its adjournment motion on the issue filed on Wednesday soon after the question hour and did not allow any other business to proceed after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi opposed the demand, saying the government would need two days to study the 80-page judgment.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Liaquat Baloch, who opened the discussion on a point of order, said the judgment had proved the deal was faulty and necessitated a debate on what he called a loot of the exchequer.
Aitzaz Ahsan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said such a case in India, Britain, the United States or any democratic country in Europe would have toppled a government and described the verdict as a charge-sheet against the prime minister and the Privatisation Commission requiring the cabinet to resign.
Other opposition members chanted “resign, resign” with him.
Khwaja Mohammad Asif of the PML-N said the judgment required registration of a criminal case against the prime minister and the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation.
The prime minister was not present during the row during which opposition members once besieged the speaker’s dais, chanting slogans.
PPP chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim also called for an immediate debate when Mr Hussain asked for his comments on Mr Niazi’s proposal for consultations in the speaker’s office.
Even about an hour’s suspension of the house did not settle the dispute because the speaker and opposition members could not hold a planned meeting during the interval.
But after the house resumed, both sides agreed to meet the speaker at 9.30am after the chair disregarded Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar’s surprise offer to begin the debate immediately and Mr Ahsan’s acceptance of the challenge to begin speaking if Mr Niazi stuck to his assurance that there would be no time-limit.
The opposition adjournment motion says the Supreme Court’s judgment “raises serious questions for the government’s already eroded credibility”.
It said: “It reflects a complete and open disregard for any process of accountability on the part of the government when selling off one of the country’s largest national assets. This kind of action has drawn the utmost censure from the highest court of the land and by any standard constitutes the highest grounds for a vote of no-confidence in the workings of the government.
