ISLAMABAD, Aug 12: The opposition on Saturday continued its attack on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz asking him to resign and face criminal charges in the court, during the second day of the debate on the scrapped sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in the National Assembly.
Only Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Samia Raheel Qazi, both from the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), and Ali Akbar Wains of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League took part in the debate. Some rowdy scenes were also witnessed when Mr Wains passed some objectionable remarks against former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Earlier, during the question hour, the opposition strongly protested over the continued absence of ministers from the parliament proceedings. Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain also took a serious note of the situation and asked the chief whip of the PML Nasrullah Dareshak to take up the matter with the prime minister.
Mr Dareshak admitted that the attitude of the ministers had been causing embarrassment for the government. He, however, assured the speaker that he would look into the matter and ensure the ministers’ presence in future.
The house witnessed a rumpus when the speaker allowed Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan to read a letter from Leader of the House in the Senate Wasim Sajjad in which he had denied the charges of making appointments in the Senate’s Secretariat in violation of rules when he was the chairman.
The opposition members protested and shouted at the minister when he was reading the letter. They were of the view that there was no rule under which a letter of any member of the Senate could be read in the National Assembly.
The speaker overruled the objections and allowed the minister to read it.
The letter had been written by Mr Sajjad in response to allegations levelled against him by Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan of the People’s Party Parliamentarians while taking part in the debate during the Friday’s session.
Later, taking part in the debate on the privatisation policy, Mr Ahmed said the Supreme Court had taken a timely notice of the day-light robbery which was being committed by the regime in the name of PSM privatisation.
He said the prime minister should submit his resignation after the apex court’s judgment and go to the court to face charges against him.
Referring to the SC decision which said the acts of ‘omission’ and ‘commission’ had been committed in the PSM privatisation, he said the word ‘commission’ was already a part of the name Privatisation Commission (PC).
He questioned the privatisation of the Habib Bank Limited and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited and alleged that the national assets had also been sold at throwaway prices.
Ms Qazi said it had been reported that the privatisation proceeds were being used in purchase of Mercedes Benz vehicles and on the Prime Minister’s House.
She said the PSM was meeting the country’s defence needs and it seemed that those people were trying to sell it who were against its establishment.
She asked the National Accountability Bureau to take action against those responsible for the PSM privatisation.
Mr Wains, instead of speaking on the PSM privatisation, focused his speech on the performance of the past governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto that caused rumpus in the house.
