ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution condemning Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League chief Sh Rasheed for openly cursing the parliament at a PAT-sponsored rally in Lahore, stating that the two had attempted to show the country’s ‘supreme institution’ in a bad light.
“The parliament is a department of democracy with which the country’s stability and prosperity are tied up,” the unanimously passed resolution stated, adding that Imran and Rashid’s open cursing of the parliament was akin to ‘disrespecting the nation’. “No other system can work in the country,” the resolution declared, which was presented in the house by federal minister Baleegh-ur-Rehman,
PTI legislators, however, were not present in the House when the resolution was passed.
“All limits were crossed in the [joint opposition] rally,” Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif remarked, adding that the ‘frustration’ of the opposition leaders knew no bounds. He said that both the leaders should be summoned before a parliamentary committee of the National Assembly. “They should be summoned and if they don’t come then must be arrested and produced here [in the assembly],” he said.
“Decisions aren’t made in rallies but in the parliament. They have attacked the parliament and hurled abuses. You can never come to power while continuing on this path. You have abused the parliament which you want to use to come to power,” he remarked.
“Parliament has given you the respect that you have today. Votes were cast in your favour in order for you to become a member of this parliament,” he said. “Otherwise, what respect do they have? They have changed their parties six to seven times. They have no conscience … they have no shame,” he added.
The minister said that parliament was the supreme law-making institution, adding, “If those who drive strength from this institution resort to abusing it, then no other institution will respect it.”
“Elections are about to be held and everyone has the right to hold campaigns. They have the right to motivate their supporters but they have no right to hurl abuses on parliament,” the minister said.
“I can’t even repeat the words used against parliament [in the joint opposition rally],” Pakistan People’s Party stalwart and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khurshid Shah said. “Parliament has empowered us to demand and fight for our rights. Parliament has made the country an atomic power. Parliament is the country’s last hope. Shame on everyone who used such words against this institution,” he said.
“Nawaz Sharif insults the institutions of the country. Imran Khan insults the institutions of the country,” he said, claiming that no member from PPP had ever criticised any institution. “We didn’t criticize the institutions even when our sitting prime minister was dismissed within seconds. We love Pakistan and its institutions,” he added.
“We have a scary history,” Shah said, recalling that in the past 40 years, the parliament had seen many highs and lows. “There are politicians who have given unimaginable sacrifices for this parliament. I was 16-years-old when I went to jail for the first time,” he said.
Shah said that the parliament is the only institution that could save the country, going on to list the accomplishments of the House. He said that the parliament had written the constitution that had given Pakistanis the right to speak, the right to ask for rights, to strengthen the institutions and distribute power to them. Shah said that numerous cases had been filed against the PPP over the years, but the party has never committed contempt against the institutions.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto was quick to distance his party ? which also participated in the Mall Road rally ? from the anti-parliamentary remarks. The PPP respects the parliament and will always do so, he had said in a tweet. “Cannot help the behaviour of others but will never endorse disrespecting [the] parliament,” he had said.
Published in Daily Times, January 19th 2018.
