Internal fights to benefit enemy of country: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Outgoing Leader of the House in the Senate Muhammad Ishaq Dar Friday invited the opposition to jointly thrash out charters of democracy and economy to take the country ‘out of troubled waters’.

Delivering his farewell speech in the House, Dar, who is a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), cautioned that if they kept on fighting each other, then it would benefit the enemy of the country.

Likewise, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) veteran leader Senator Mian Raza Rabbani wanted a grand national dialogue among all political parties from the platform of the House Committee of the Whole to rid the country of global imperialism and hybrid politics.

The senator lamented that whenever Pakistan is about to take off, conspiracies start, and it slumps down, suggesting all to consciously work together not to let it happen again. He advocated that the unfinished agenda of the Charter of Democracy, involving establishment of truth and reconciliation commission and constitutional court, should be completed.

Legislator Dar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also talked about charter of economy and reconciliation. He called for drawing up a consensus economic roadmap, which should not be derailed, insisting that the economic challenges cannot be overcome overnight, and may take years. “A single party cannot do it,” he added.

In his farewell speech, which was the briefest, Rabbani, who appeared weary of what he called mortgaging the country’s financial sovereignty and internal politics based on hybrid system. “I think it is useless to talk on these two matters,” he remarked.

He said in the present situation he believed that all the political parties should initiate a grand national dialogue, activating the Senate Committee of the Whole to rid the nation of these two issues.

It would also be of not much use, he contended, to talk on the performance of Parliament; therefore, national grand dialogue should be initiated and the Senate Committee of the Whole could work as a truth and reconciliation commission too.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Javed expressed gratitude to Rabbani for strongly raising issues, concerning the Constitution and the human rights and expressing solidarity with his party with regards to what was happening.

The outgoing Senate Deputy Chairman, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, said it was unfortunate that he saw seven prime ministers during his six-year term as member of the House and because of change of governments, his initiatives to help reshape taxation system, and above all push for the charter of economy and Charter of Democracy could not reach its logical conclusion.

“It has been my endeavour for Pakistan’s trade connectivity with the Central Asian States and tried to be effective from the platform of House standing committees as well as a member FBR policy board. He thanked then prime minister Imran Khan for making him FBR policy board member.

He emphasised that food security was becoming a global challenge and underlined the need for paying due attention to agriculture sector and building dams to avoid food security crisis in the country.

Mirza Afridi, Humayun Mohmand of PTI and PMLN’s Afnan Ullah congratulated their colleague Faisal Saleem on his election as member of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Board.

They said it was a matter of honour for the Senate, the nation and the country. Faisal Saleem belongs to the PTI.

In his remark of taunt, Senator Mohmand said that in the 144 members parliamentary board of the World Bank and IMF, an election was held for the first time in Pakistan’s history, a PTI lawmaker got elected the member of these two donor bodies.

“He got elected, as the election was conducted on the basis of Form-45 and if it had been held on Form-47 and our Election Commission could have carried out the exercise, then someone else would have won,” he said.

National Party Senator Tahir Bizenjo said there were reservations over political role of the defence institutions, adding the defence institutions would be criticised if they meddled in political affairs. Bizenjo questioned the credibility of general elections and said the results had been prepared before the electoral exercise. He called for full implementation of the Constitution and warned otherwise Pakistan would continue facing crises.

PMLN’s Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed in his speech said, “A new chapter has begun after February 8 and we need a healing touch. PTI’s founder chairman Imran Khan is a political prisoner; he must be released.”

He also threw high weight behind PTI demand for allocation of reserved seats to it.

He proposed a general amnesty, wondering why it could not be done if talks could be held in Kabul with the TTP which was responsible for killing innocent children.

PML-Functional Senator Muzaffar Hussain Shah called for more powers to the Senate, saying without getting financial powers, the Senate would become just a debating club. H also made a proposal that the prime minister should be elected at a joint session of Parliament.

Meanwhile, the House echoed with cheers from PTI members, when Deputy Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi ordered for the issuance of production orders of PTI Senator Ijaz Chaudhry, enabling him to use his right to vote in presidential election Saturday.

Senator Ali Zafar of the PTI had moved a motion signed by both the treasury and opposition benches in the House, seeking production orders for Senator Ijaz Chaudhry, who was detained by Punjab police in various cases on May 9.

He said that rule 84 of the Senate grants the chairman, the discretionary powers to summon a member in custody for a sitting of the Senate. He said the presence of Senator Ijaz Chaudhry was necessary for the presidential election on March 9, to use his right to vote in the election under his constitutional right. Ali Zafar informed the Senate about Injaz Chaudhry’s health and said he was medically unfit having issues of liver and uric acid. He demanded the formation of a medical board in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for his detailed medical examination.