ISLAMABAD: A day after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) sought an apology from Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi over his controversial remarks about newly elected Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah also ‘condemned’ Mr Abbasi’s ‘attitude’ and termed it ‘insulting’ to parliament.

“The remarks of the prime minister are shameful and condemnable,” Mr Shah declared while talking to a group of reporters at his Parliament House chamber here on Tuesday.

Speaking at different gatherings in Nankana Sahib and Lahore recently, the prime minister had expressed concern over the election of the Senate chairman and said there was a need to elect a consensus chairman of the upper house of parliament, as it reflected the federation.

When asked about reports that Mr Abbasi was not willing to receive Mr Sanjrani, the Pakistan Peoples Party leader wondered as to what would be the response of the prime minister if he was called by the Senate chairman to appear in the house.

“Will he refuse (to appear)? Will he insult parliament by not coming to the house on the chairman’s ruling? Will he not sit in the house?” the opposition leader asked, regretting that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was constantly following the policy of confrontation among the state institutions. He said the country would become strong only if it would have strong institutions.

Mr Shah said the prime minister had some misunderstanding over the Senate chairman’s election. He claimed that Mr Sanjrani had been elected through a “clear and open” vote in a democratic manner. Moreover, he said, the country’s main parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, PTI and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had voted for Mr Sanjrani. So much so, he claimed that the calculations showed that at least three members of the ruling PML-N had also voted for Mr Sanjrani.

Responding to a question about the ongoing rift within the MQM, Mr Shah lamented MQM’s former convener Dr Farooq Sattar’s “uncalled-for” criticism of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He said both the MQM and the PML-N had been following the same policy of bringing disrepute to the state institutions.

He claimed that before the ECP’s decision, Dr Sattar had stated that he would accept the ECP’s verdict. However, he said, that he was disappointed to see Dr Sattar declaring the ECP’s decision as the “black decision”.

The PPP leader alleged that all the factions of the MQM had created a gulf between the rural and urban population of Sindh and now the people had realised that the MQM leaders were only interested in gaining control over the party and they had no interest with the public issues. He said the MQM had totally disappointed the people of Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.

Later, speaking at a news conference at the National Press Club, the opposition leader again said that he was not expecting that Prime Minister Abbasi would also become a member of the PML-N’s group which had been given the task of using abusive language against the opponents. He regretted that the politicians were not doing issue-based politics.

He said that it was good that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had admitted that he had committed a mistake by becoming a party in the Memogate scam. He claimed that Mr Sharif had once admitted before him that it was his mistake, stating that he had been forced to commit this mistake.

Responding to a question, Mr Shah ruled out the possibility of rolling back of the 18th Constitution Amendment.

In reply to another query, he said that he would hold consultations on the issue of the caretaker government with Prime Minister Abbasi and not with Mr Sharif or the PML-N.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2018