Accountability process not to stop come what may: Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that no matter how much the opposition raises hue and cry, the process of accountability would not stop. “We should accord respect to the state institutions and desist from ridiculing them.”

Talking to journalists outside the Parliament after the eventful Senate proceedings on Monday, the minister insisted that none would be allowed to use derogatory language against the state institutions, like the army. The minister said that state institutions were functioning within their constitutional ambit and would continue doing so. During the speech of PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar in the Senate, he had objected to his remarks against the army.

Referring to the prime minister’s news conference in Lahore on Sunday, he pointed out that the prime minister had talked about the corrupt people. “Whenever the prime minister talks about corruption and corrupt people, no one knows, why the opposition lawmakers protest and stage walk-uts,” he wondered.

In response to a question, he said had the prime minister control over the NAB, then half of them would not have been making speeches in the House. The prime minister, he noted, had made it clear that there would be accountability of the looters of national wealth. He rejected the opposition allegation that PML-N leader’s arrest was an act of political victimisation.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan came under scathing criticism from the opposition in the Senate on Monday for his ‘Hitler-like’ tone and tenor against the rival politicians in his news conference a day earlier, accusing him of using the National Accountability Bureau for political vendetta. The House proceedings were marred by a walkout by the joint opposition senators, leading to the lack of quorum. However, despite ringing of bells for five minutes, the government could not ensure the presence of mandatory 26 senators in the House. Opposition senators wore black armbands to agitate the PML-N leader’s arrest, dubbing it disgrace of the parliament. They insisted Shahbaz was not involved in corruption of even a penny.

JUI-Fazl’s Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman was particularly harsh towards the prime minister and his government, as several of his insinuations and adjectives, hurled at him, were expunged from the record by Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrahi, who appeared helpless at one time to restore calm in the House with several opposition senators and treasury members on their feet.

Immediately, after the PTI’s Dr. Shahzad Waseem was administered oath as senator, Leader of the Opposition Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq rose and said that the opposition in its meeting before the sitting decided that their memberswould express their sentiments on the arrest of Leader of Opposition in NA and PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif, who was described as the best administrator, whose crime was Punjab’s development, which the Chinese wanted to replicate.

Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz had no objection to this. PML-N’s Muhammad Javed Abbasi was the first to express his ire at his party leader’s arrest. Others who spoke included Senator Maulana Atta, Abdul Qayyum, Ayesha Raza, Ghous Bakhsh Niazi of PML-N and PkMAP’s Usman Kakar and Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party.

Raja Zafar regretted that Shahbaz was summoned in one case and apprehended in another one and strongly questioned the way, he was forced to undergo pain and then handed over to NAB. He called the day of his arrest as the black day in Pakistan’s democracy. “The action hurt all the Pakistanis and political parties and shook the country. The way the government is behaving has put a question mark on the future of democracy in Pakistan,” he asserted.

However, it was the speech by Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s younger brother Senator Atta, which really unsettled the ministers, sitting in the first row and some treasury senators, including Senator Faisal Javed.

Minister for Science Technology Muhammad Azam Swati, State Minister for Interior Sheharyar Afridi and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan strongly protested over the choice of words, used by Senator Maulana Atta against the prime minister and demanded of the chair to ask him to first apologise, then they would let him speak. They questioned why he was so upset on the arrest of the leader of another party.

However, he appeared in no mood to oblige and when the chair insisted on this, he contended why he should tender an apology, when his words had already been expunged. “Why was the prime minister threatening the opposition, should he not hurl threats at India? We don’t give a damn to his news conference,” he cried, as most of time he spoke, his mike was kept switched off. Opposition senators alleged that the PTI had been brought through rigging to execute certain agenda that included weakening of the parliament and democracy. They charged that the prime minister and his ministers were already in the knowledge of NAB action and they had talked about it to the media even that evening.

“Is NAB working after seeking go-ahead from the government and its ministers?” one of them asked while another asserted that the action against Shahbaz had seriously undermined the credibility of the anti-graft body.

Opposition senators maintained that they were not opposition to one-sided or selective accountability but it should be even-handed and across the board. They feared the PTI government would lead Pakistan nowhere, as prime minister still believed he was in the opposition and standing on a container, having no idea of gravity of Pakistan’s state of affairs and how to address the challenges at hand.

One senator proposed that the military, judiciary, politicians, bankers and industrialists should thrash out a collective mechanism on accountability, as the opposition would not allow witch-hunt of politicians or their political victimisation.

PML-N Senator Abdul Qayyum said the arrest of PM in waiting, leader of the opposition in NA and chief of the largest party in the parliament was a glaring example of political victimisation. He added witch-hunt and selective justice for political ends would erode public confidence in the viability of democratic system. He demanded immediate release of Shahbaz.

The opposition lawmakers staged a walkout from the House after Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain ‘rolled up his sleeves’ to respond to their criticism over the arrest of Shahbaz in an alleged corruption case.

Without giving an equal opportunity to members on both sides of the aisle, the chair allowed only the opposition senators to speak on the arrest of Shahbaz, which irritated the treasury members, especially Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz, who had proposed after some speeches were made that only parliamentary leaders be permitted to speak, as they had a lengthy agenda to exhaust. Interestingly, the House business could not be taken up. He emphasised equal opportunity should be given to the senators: one member each should be allowed to express their views on the issue, as government ministers wanted to respond to the alleged ‘victimization’ of opposition parties.

To this, the chair agreed and allowed the Minister for Information and Broadcasting to respond to the opposition queries, but contrary to expectations, the opposition instead of listening to the minister, staged a walkout, saying the minister could not respond unless all members finished their speeches.

The chairman ordered ringing of bells for five minutes, besides sending some ministers to bring back the protesting opposition. After they failed to persuade them, the chairman asked the Leader of the House and Information Minister to bring back the opposition senators but all in vain.

However, in a hurriedly delivered speech while the opposition was on its way out from the House, Fawad questioned, “What’s the justification with you to call it victimization, when you had a history of harassing rivals through their cronies like Saifur Rehman under so-called accountability?”

He contended that the PTI has come into power under the slogan of accountability and declared, “We will not be deterred through these pressure tactics of the opposition, which is trying to save the skins of each other as ‘they are hand in gloves’. He continued, “if you are not guilty, why do you raise hue and cry when we talk of the plunderers and thieves who played havoc with national wealth and stashed taxpayers’ money in foreign banks”.

The minister, who is a lawyer, said that cases against Shahbaz Sharif were not initiated during the PTI government, as they had been started over a year ago. He also condemned the remarks by PML-N senators for calling some government ministers as ‘subedar, naik’, saying no one will be allowed to ridicule the military, which had rendered numerous sacrifices for the country.

With this, senators Azam Musakheil and Sitara Ayaz pointed out the quorum, ultimately leaving the chair with no option but to adjourn the House as the quorum could not be completed despite ringing of the bells for well over five minutes.

Earlier, speaking on the issue, Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP accused NAB of carrying out crackdown on the opposition on the orders of the prime minister and the powerful circles. “We have come into power to ensure ruthless accountability and we are not going to spare anyone involved in corruption,” Fawad kept passing remarks during Kakar’s speech. The interruption by the minister irritated Senator Kakar at one point, who asked the chair to stop the minister or things would get worse. “Under whose control is today’s media,” Kakar asked and Fawad retorted under our control and to this the nationalist senator again asked, “and under whose control are you”.

Senator Sadia Abbasi of the PML-N cried over the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif and maintained he was the only chief minister who overworked for about 18-19 hours daily during his stint as chief minister Punjab, adding the arrest of the Sharif brothers and Maryam, was nothing but to harass them and to stifle a strong voice for democracy.

Senator Tahir Bizenjo of the National Party asked was the NAB infested with corruption or transparent as a spring and then himself pointed out that the chief justice of Pakistan had observed that there was so much corruption in NAB. “This is the superior judiciary’s views about NAB and then to expect that it would conduct accountability with fairness tantamount to cheating oneself,” he said.

Referring to a recent report in The News, he said that there was no give and take of funds under the public-private partnership initiative, and the land on which the housing scheme was to be built, belonged to the government of Punjab and even then, NAB saw a scandal behind this. He cautioned that the arrest of opposition leader, being a partial accountability, was an act of confrontation by the government that could lead to anarchy and unrest in Pakistan.

PTI’s Senator Faisal Javed alleged that charter of democracy signed by late Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to join hands against military rules, was in fact a charter of corruption. He charged that both the PPP and PML-N were hand in gloves to protect each other’s corruption, which is the reason they start crying over ongoing accountability drive of government.

The House will resume now on Wednesday.