ISLAMABAD: While the ministers for finance, foreign affairs and water and power were the main targets of criticism from across the aisle, a number of treasury lawmakers also spoke harshly about their own senior cabinet members.

They criticised the ministers’ complete obliviousness to ground realities and derided policies that were made “out of thin air”.

In the eyes of one veteran Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker from Gujranwala, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was the ideal choice to be the country’s foreign minister.

Retired Justice Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema, in an unreserved speech, said that at a time when Indians were forging alliances — both at the regional and international level — and bringing investment worth billions of dollars to their country, “our Foreign Office is simply missing from the scene, which shows its abject failure.”

Criticise budget’s lack of measures for farmers’ protection; members berate Foreign Office for ‘not doing its job’

Justice Cheema, who recently reclaimed his seat after being de-seated by the Supreme Court for hiding his assets, seemed unaware that the prime minister currently held the portfolio of foreign minister and that the octogenarian Sartaj Aziz was merely an adviser.

“The best option for the government at the moment is to bring the Punjab CM to the federal government and appoint him foreign minister.”

In the same breath, Justice Cheema also took Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to task for ignoring the plight of small farmers. “With the government’s negligence of the agriculture sector, farmers have no option but to stand against the government. Please don’t wait for their fury, otherwise it will be too late for the whole system.”

Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry, a little-known PML-N lawmaker from Vehari, also minced no words in his criticism of the finance minister for hurting the interests of the agricultural community.

“It seems the finance minister has vowed not to do anything to benefit small farmers,” he said, adding that Mr Dar must understand that 70pc of the population worked in the agriculture sector and negative growth there meant the country was also going downhill.

Mian Tariq Mehmood, another ruling party lawmaker from Gujranwala, reserved his criticism for Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif. Mr Mehmood said the Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) had admitted to overbilling to the tune of Rs12-14 billion, but the ministry led by Khawaja Asif was busy lodging FIRs against locals.

“We have been robbed by our own ministry, which is penalising us at the same time through no fault of our own.” But while Mr Mehmood was cheered by the opposition benches for taking on the mighty Khawaja Asif, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abasi had his mike switched off.

All three PML-N MNAs also hit out against their own government for not doing enough to root out corruption from the country.

Lawmakers from the opposition benches chiefly targeted the Foreign Office. PTI chief whip Dr Shireen Mazari said that in view of its recent performance, the Foreign Office should be disbanded.

“Is there any front on which our Foreign Office has proven its worth in securing the interests of the country?” she asked. Be it Pakistan’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, ongoing border skirmishes with Afghanistan, or the Kashmir issue, the Foreign Office is nowhere to be seen.

PPP’s Imran Zafar Leghari also chimed in, saying the country was witnessing the worst possible period of its foreign policy. Talking about the growing incidence of violence against women, he criticised the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for its highly partisan role, saying that if the CII was allowed to have its way, there wouldn’t be any respect for women in Pakistan.

In his speech, PTI’s Dr Arif Alvi reminded the finance minister of his statements regarding the government’s initiatives to bring back money stashed in Swiss banks. “What an irony that when the Swiss government has made laws to help countries whose citizens have deposited funds in Swiss banks, we are sitting idle. Where is the promised legislation to bring back $200 billion, which according to Senator Dar himself, Pakistanis have transferred to Swiss banks?” Dr Alvi asked.

In an emotional outburst, the lawmaker from Karachi also recalled how people were forced to commit suicide due to hunger. “For me, if the government has failed to provide constitutionally-mandated employment, health, education, housing and justice, a higher or lower GDP makes no difference.”

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2016