Lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition parties hold a ‘mock session of parliament’ in front of the Parliament House on Thursday.—Mohammad Asim / White Star
Lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and other opposition parties hold a ‘mock session of parliament’ in front of the Parliament House on Thursday.—Mohammad Asim / White Star

ISLAMABAD: A divided opposition on Thursday held a mock “joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate” in front of the Parliament House building to register its protest over the alleged political victimisation of opponents by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The call for the protest had been given by the PML-N over the move of the government to delay the National Assembly session for which it had submitted a requisition notice on Oct 5 soon after the arrest of Mr Sharif.

The PML-N leaders had claimed that all the other opposition parties had assured it that they would have a token participation in the protest in order to display unity in the opposition ranks. However, out of the 10 opposition parties, the members belonging to only three parties — the PML-N, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) — participated in the protest which was held outside the boundary wall of the Parliament House on the Constitution Avenue after National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser stopped TV cameras from entering the premises to cover the event.

The protesting journalists were informed by the NA Secretariat staff that TV cameras were only allowed during sessions of the National Assembly or the Senate.

Assails govt for ‘political victimisation’; NAB chairman asked to resign; PPP among parties which skipped the event

The absence of Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) members from the protest was conspicuous and some PML-N leaders regretted over the party’s attitude, terming it detrimental for the opposition’s unity. The other prominent opposition parties which stayed away from the protest were Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party and National Party.

The protesting opposition members asked the speaker to issue production orders for Shahbaz Sharif for Oct 16 so that he could preside over the meeting of the party’s parliamentary meeting ahead of the requisitioned NA session. The speaker had already issued production orders for Mr Sharif for the Oct 17 session.

Former speaker Ayaz Sadiq presided over the mock session in which the members were allowed to hold a discussion on the situation that arose after the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif. The members were also carrying placards inscribed with anti-government slogans such as Dhandli Zadda Elections Namanzoor (rigged elections unacceptable) and Jaali Wazir-i-Azam Namanzoor (fake prime minister unacceptable).

The opposition’s protest on a serious issue presented the scene of a stage show in which Mr Sadiq acted like the speaker and even issued orders from time to time, asking the members to maintain “order in the house”. The “speaker” also expunged some of the personal remarks passed by the speakers targeting Prime Minister Imran Khan.

There was a huge laughter when at one stage Mr Sadiq asked JUI-F’s Maulana Ataur Rehman, who was delivering the speech, to pull his hands out of his pocket, to which the witty Maulana immediately responded that his hand was in his own pocket and not in Mr Sadiq’s pocket.

The most hard-hitting speeches were delivered by Senators Mushaidullah Khan and Asif Kirmani of the PML-N, Maulana Ataur Rehman of the JUI-F and Usman Kakar of the PkMAP.

“After controlled elections, we have a controlled democracy, a controlled government and a controlled media,” declared PML-N’s Asif Kirmani. He said the government was trembling ahead of the Oct 14 by-elections and it had arrested Shahbaz Sharif “in a bogus case” in order to keep him away from the masses. He predicted that the people would not tolerate this government beyond six months.

Mushahidullah Khan said every effort was made to damage the PML-N before the general elections, but all these efforts remained fruitless. Alleging that the election results were changed after the polling, he demanded of the Election Commission of Pakistan to release the CCTV footage of polling stations from where the polling agents were forcibly thrown out at the time of vote-count.

JUI-F’s Shahida Akhtar Ali lashed out at NAB for “selective accountability”, saying that it had arrested Mr Sharif despite the fact that he was cooperating with it. On one hand, she stated, the PTI people claimed that NAB was not functioning under the government then how the ministers knew before time about the arrests.

Rana Sanaullah briefed the participants about the Ashiyana Housing Scam in which Mr Sharif had been arrested and warned that if the government continued “political victimisation”, they would be forced to bring their protest out of the parliament.

Former Kashmir Affairs minister Barjees Tahir alleged that the PTI government had taken 55 U-turns in as many days.

Senator Maulana Ataur Rehman, brother of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said that Imran Khan was not living in Prime Minister House because he did not deserve it. He said people knew about “those” who had brought the PTI into power.

“I ask those (people) who are actually on the driving seat to please take care of this country,” he said, warning that the opposition would not sit idle if the government continued its “policy of victimisation”.

Usman Kakar of the PkMAP said that Shahbaz Sharif had been arrested under a planned scheme at the behest of “those institutions who do not want to see parliament’s supremacy in the country”. He said the country was witnessing a real battle between “democratic and non-democratic forces”. He asked the NAB chairman to resign from the office for becoming a “political tool” in the hands of the rulers. He also demanded that the chief election commissioner should also resign for his alleged failure to conduct elections in a free and transparent manner.

The opposition members also passed a number of resolutions through voice vote. Through a resolution moved by former deputy speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, the members “condemned NAB for becoming a facilitator in the ongoing political vendetta against the opposition”.

The opposition members also through various resolutions condemned the government for its “anti-poor” economic policies, its decision to seek bailout package from the International Monetary Fund on tough conditions and for making the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor controversial.

Former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb presented a resolution condemning “unannounced censorship on media and the government’s act of blocking the media coverage of their protest”.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2018

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