ISLAMABAD, June 10: Army’s role in the country’s politics came under fire during a heated budget debate in the National Assembly on Saturday, with opposition vowing to challenge the trend.

The ruling coalition tinged its defence with attacks on the previous governments of two major opposition parties.

Prominent opposition members, including Aitzaz Ahsan and Raja Pervez Ashraf of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, also criticised the military operations in Balochistan and Waziristan while a Baloch nationalist party member complained of human rights violations in his province.

Minister of State for Law, Justice and Human Rights Shahid Akram Bhinder provoked protest shouts from opposition benches as he ridiculed the governments of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on the second day of a counter-offensive mainly by young ruling party members who included ministers of state Hina Rabbani Khar (Economic Affairs) and Ali Asjad Malhi (Railways).

Aitzaz Ahsan noted with regret that after Myanmar, Pakistan was the world’s second military-ruled country which, he said, had been transformed from a welfare state to a national security state where a general rather what he called “financial czar Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was empowered to “move mountains”, take decisions and direct policies.

PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said the army was “no longer a defender of (the country’s) frontiers” because of its involvement in politics.

Imran Khan said the army’s present role in Balochistan and North Waziristan showed that no lesson had been learnt from the separation of former East Pakistan and the British rulers’ experience in tribal areas.

Abdul Rauf Mengal of the Balochistan National Party-M, said 60,000 troops had been deployed in Balochistan and alleged that 700 people had been killed in operations there.