ISLAMABAD July 5: Treasury benches in the senate came to the help of prime minister-in-waiting Shaukat Aziz on Monday when the upper house witnessed an uproar over a controversy generated by some opposition members who objected to his being nominated to the highest office in the country alleging that he was a US citizen.
Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who came to the senate accompanied by Mr Aziz, kept his cool during the exchange of harsh words between members of the treasury and the opposition benches.
Interestingly, the opposition to Mr Aziz's nomination was spearheaded by senators belonging to the ARD and its allied parties while members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal kept away from the fray and two of their colleagues, Maulana Gul Nasib and Maulana Samiul Haq, confined themselves to welcoming the new prime minister.
While Chaudhry Shujaat chose to ignore the desk thumping and words of praise, Mr Aziz applauded every word uttered in his favour by treasury senators by thumping the desk.
It was Raza Mohammad Raza of the Balochistan National Party who started it all by saying: "We welcome Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on his election as prime minister and would like him to continue in the office as in our view Shaukat Aziz does not qualify for the highest office being an alien in the country."
This triggered off the uproar as several members of the treasury benches stood up and shouted at the members of the opposition. Acting chairman of the senate, Khalilur Rahman, tried to stop the two sides from hurling allegations against each others, but failed.
He only said: "Anyone who is born in Pakistan is a Pakistani citizen irrespective of the fact that he has lived abroad for over 20 years." Interrupting briefly, Chaudhry Shujaat said: "Shaukat Aziz is neither from Saudi Arabia nor from any European country, but a Pakistani."
PPP's parliamentary leader Mian Raza Rabbani said in the constitution, there was no room for two prime ministers at a time, adding that the tag of the prime minister-in-waiting with Shaukat Aziz had been slapped to exploit the voters in his favour.
He said it was an eye-opener for the nation that the establishment, which had so far been patronising politicians it had groomed, expressed its lack of confidence in its loyalists.
Mr Rabbani said that the selection of a 'technocrat' for the post of premier smacked of the era of Ayub Khan who had banked on technocrats who carried out reforms for a decade but ended up promoting only 21 families.
In the present case, he said, the effects of the so-called economic stability achieved under Mr Aziz was that poverty had further increased. PPP's Dr Safdar Abbasi turned violent when a treasury senator accused the PPP leadership of amassing ill-gotten money and depositing it in foreign banks.
He declared: "I stand by my stance that Shaukat Aziz is a US citizen." Kamil Ali Agha, Mohammad Ali Durrani and Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli took on the major burden of defending Mr Aziz as a man who, they said, had stabilized the country's economy.
They described Mr Aziz as being an internationally-recognized professional, a self-made man and one who had attracted investment when he was abroad and put the country on the path of progress as finance minister.
Another PPP senator, Latif Khan Khosa, said that if the prime minister believed in the constitution then he should leave the post of party president after assuming the public office.
He said that the PPO was being flagrantly violated as Chaudhry Pervez Elahi in Punjab was also occupying both the party and public offices. Mr Khosa said that the Lahore High Court had ruled that only a Pakistani citizen could become the prime minister of Pakistan and it was also a constitutional requirement that a Pakistani national should hold the highest office.
He was continuing when the chair interrupted and threatened to adjourn the proceedings if he did not stop his tirade. In the meantime, Prime Minister Shujaat stood up and said: "If you want a solution to all this then I suggest to the chair not to fix a senate session for Tuesday when Shaukat Aziz will be filing nomination papers in Attock."
He also asked the opposition to accompany Mr Aziz. Earlier, the prime minister was invited by the chair to express his views and he spoke a few words but no-one in the press gallery could make out what he said.
MQM's minister Babar Khan Ghauri, who was allowed to speak, regretted the opposition's tirade against Mr Aziz, who, he said, was like millions of other Pakistanis who remained abroad to earn for their country and families.