LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led opposition on Monday evinced scant interest in the supplementary budget 2017-18 as it stuck to one demand -- hang Nawaz Sharif for his ‘pro-India’ statement.

The moment the assembly session began Opposition Leader Mahmoodur Rasheed rose to his seat and sought permission to speak on the point of order which was turned down by Speaker Rana Iqbal.

The speaker told him that Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus-Pasha would first present the supplementary budget, then any one else would be allowed to speak. Rasheed insisted that he should be given a few minutes to talk about the controversial statement of Nawaz Sharif. He said it was imperative to present a resolution in the house as Nawaz Sharif’s statement had endorsed the Indian narrative on the Mumbai attack. “Sharif should retract his statement and apologise to the nation,” he demanded.

When Rasheed did not listen to the speaker’s direction his mike was switched off and the finance minister was asked to present the [supplementary] budget. On this, the opposition led by Rasheed gathered before the speaker’s desk and started chanting slogans against Mr Sharif amid Ms Pasha’s speech.

Opposition members also tore copies of the budget and kept demanding “hang Nawaz Sharif”. To match with the opposition, many treasury members also rose from their seats and shouted slogans against Imran Khan.

Rana Iqbal tried to restore order in the house but to no avail. Even the treasury members did not bother to comply with his order (to sit down). On the conclusion of Ms Pasha’s speech, the speaker immediately adjourned the session for Tuesday (today) while the opposition members held a demonstration outside the assembly building for some time.

The PTI also submitted two separate resolutions to the assembly on the statement of Mr Sharif. “Nawaz Sharif should be arrested forthwith and tried for treason,” MPA Murad Raas said.

In the other resolution, PTI lawmaker Arif Abbasi said: “The Nawaz Sharif’s statement on Mumbai attack has created problems for Pakistan internationally.” It also demanded constitution of a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe his business links with Indian steel tycoon Jindal.

Talking to reporters outside the assembly, Mahmoodur Rasheed said: “Mr Sharif has violated his oath as prime minister and he is weakening the country.”

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah defended the statement of Mr Sharif saying “If our official stance about non-state actors is that they had gone from here then why there is a noise over it”. Sanaullah tried to explain as to how his leader was targeted on different issues one by one. “First, Nawaz Sharif was targeted on the Khatm-i-Nabuwat issue followed by the NAB and now the ‘unidentified persons’ started targeting him without looking into his statement.”

He said there was no point in it that one general (Zia) made ‘Mujahideen’ and other (Musharraf) dubbed them terrorists. “Such tactics will not work this time around. There is no room for hypocrisy on such matters any more,” he said and added PML-N chief Shahbaz Sharif had not offered any clarification on Nawaz’s statement.

Sanaullah asserted that after a couple of days everyone would endorse the statement of Nawaz Sharif. “Media is being directed. A few weeks ago a media house was closed. Now it is open and every one knows how it happened,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2018