ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday effectively utilised an opposition-requisitioned session of the Senate to defend itself on several key policy fronts, even as the upper house unanimously approved an amendment to the Elections Act 2017, aimed at restoring the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat declaration for election candidates.

As many as five ministers, responding to rhetoric-laden speeches of opposition members, defended their government’s economic and internal policies, as well as the actions of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the aftermath of the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

“The government and the PML-N do not want a confrontation among institutions,” Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said in response to members’ allegations that the PML-N was pitting institutions against each other merely to save the corrupt Sharif family.

“We did not throw stones at anyone, we did not revolt despite the sacking of an elected prime minister,” Mr Rafique said, adding that despite their reservations over the SC verdict, they implemented it “within two minutes” and Mr Sharif relinquished his post.

Saad Rafique claims PML-N doesn’t want confrontation among institutions; terms criticism of judicial decisions a legal right

“But it is our constitutional and legal right to criticise the [court’s] decision,” he said, asking the opposition: “Are you in agreement with all previous court decisions?”

Mr Rafique regretted that judges had used terms such as “godfather, mafias and terrorists” during the hearing of the Panama Papers case.

“We could have approached the Supreme Judicial Council [with a complaint against the judges], but we didn’t,” he added.

Mr Rafique said that Mr Sharif and his family members were appearing before courts they have no faith in while Kulsoom Nawaz was being operated on.

“We should be appreciated for it. You have also appeared before such courts in the past,” the minister said, pointing towards members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Defending his party’s decision to give Mr Sharif a sendoff via the GT Road, the minister said it was their right to speak to the people and propagate their narrative.

Mr Rafique said he was disappointed to see the PPP opposing the move to remove a controversial law that barred a disqualified person from holding party office, recalling how the law was introduced by Gen Musharraf to keep Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif out of politics.

Mr Rafique reiterated the PML-N position that Panamagate was an international conspiracy and that opponents of the party had used it for the political ends.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan said over 450 Pakistanis were named in the Panama Papers, but only Nawaz Sharif had been convicted, which proved “their malafide intentions” — an oblique reference to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

In their speeches, opposition members criticised the government’s economic policies and called for resignation of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar following his indictment by an accountability court.

On a number of occasions, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had to stop members from making personal attacks against Mr Dar, saying that he was a member of the house and was not present (in the house) to defend himself.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid defended the finance minister in his absence and rejected the opposition’s call for his resignation. He pointed out that under the law, a person was considered innocent until his conviction, and rejected the opposition’s claim that the economy was in tatters.

Mr Rabbani also snubbed Attiq Sheikh of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement when the senator expressed indirect support for agencies’ surveillance of parliamentarians through phone-tapping and video-recording techniques.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2017