ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday rebuked PTI’s Islamabad gathering for suggesting Pakistan’s survival depends on one individual, questioning the implications of such a claim.
Speaking on the floor of the House on Tuesday, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif condemned PTI leaders for saying “No Khan, no Pakistan”, as well as the call to “bring an army of Pashtuns and attack Punjab” and questioned what will be the reaction to that. He underlined the ‘language used’ was protested by colleagues sitting in the NA. The defence minister said that it was a black day in the history of Pakistan when the KP chief minister was challenging the federation and indecent language was used for women. “Pakistan’s integrity, federation, unity and Constitution’s status was challenged,” Asif said.
Khawaja Asif slammed the Imran-founded party for failing to work towards strengthening democracy and parliament. He said there was a stark contradiction in PTI’s struggle before and after coming to power. “Their leader went to meet Bajwa hiding in the car’s trunk.” He also expressed regret over the former ruling party’s avoidance of dialogue with other political parties and alleged that PTI attempts to gain power through the backdoor. Khawaja Asif said the PTI leadership still desires to talk to the Pakistan Army only. “This is a defect in PTI’s political DNA. When you are launched through the army, you return to the origin and say that you will talk to them only,” he said. Asif pointed out that what happened on Monday did not happen in isolation. “You cannot claim any moral or constitutional protection after what you did on May 9. What can be more hypocritical than you dismantling the statue of Captain Colonel Sher Khan Shaheed and then offering Fateha at his grave on September 6,” he said. “This is the backdrop of what happened yesterday.”
During his speech, PTI lawmakers Ali Muhammad Khan and Shandana Gulzar Khan stood up and protested against Asif’s remarks which led to an exchange of some harsh words between the MNAs. Responding to their protest, the defence minister said that they started shouting when he started telling facts about them. He recalled: “Article 6 was imposed against me by these people [during the PTI government] and Ali Muhammad Khan backed the cabinet’s decision at that time.” Continuing to slam the PTI, Asif said that the PTI leaders were just staging drama. Addressing Shandana, Asif said: “I don’t want to talk to you or you’ll complain you are a woman.” In response, when Ali Muhammad Khan told Asif to mind his manners, the latter retorted, “I learnt these manners from you.”
In his speech, Federal Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain cited various incidents during the tenure of the PTI government, saying the PTI also attacked the Parliament House and the prime minister and a civil obedience movement was threatened. He recalled that the NA was unconstitutionally dissolved by PTI, and the people of Punjab were also deprived of their representation due to the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly last year. The integrity and security of Pakistan were attacked on May 9.”Now you are talking about the dignity of the House,” he said.
Tanveer regretted that no PTI member condemned the inappropriate language of KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur at a public rally where media and women were attacked. He said that Mahmood Khan Achakzai talks about the supremacy of the Constitution but he called the prime minister a dishonest person while standing on the floor of the House. He said it was high time for the PTI leadership to review its behaviour and mend the same. He said that the PTI leadership used Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed to serve their political interests and Rana Sanaullah was implicated in a fake drug case telling PTI leaders that they were not above the law. As Ali Muhammad Khan interrupted him while speaking at the top of his voice, Rana Tanveer told him his hue and cry would not work.
While taking the floor, PPP’s Syed Naveed Qamar said when Imran Khan and Ali Muhammad Khan reached the gates of the Parliament House, it was also condemned and termed an attack on the Parliament. “But limits have been exceeded by police entering Parliament premises and arresting members”, he said. He said if the accusations were correct then it amounted to crossing all the red zones.”You will have to take serious action otherwise there will be no limits to stop them”, he said. The MQM parliamentarian Mustafa Kamal called upon the PTI leadership that reactions would come if they did not mend their attitude. However, he called for reconciliation between the political parties.
Earlier, as the government was blasted for the arrest of opposition parliamentarians from inside the Parliament House, Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq ordered investigations into the incident and directed the Islamabad Police to produce detained members in the Parliament.
The Speaker summoned the Inspector General of Police Islamabad to his chamber after holding a meeting of members from the government and opposition benches and directed him to produce members in the Parliament as per existing law. He also directed the IG to treat the detained members with civility and provide them with the best possible facilities.
The parliamentarians from both sides met the Speaker in his chamber, condemned Monday night’s arrest of the members from the Parliament House and demanded strict action against those responsible, a statement issued by the media wing of the National Assembly secretariat said. Maintaining that there would be no compromise on the dignity of the Parliament, the Speaker said all the members were respectable to him and he was very grieved over the incident. “The reports of arrests of members from within the Parliament are very concerning,” he said. Ayaz Sadiq also decided to conduct investigations into the incident while taking assistance from the CCTV footage. He maintained that the dignity and respect of the Parliament were bound to everyone. The Speaker said the issue would be resolved with the cooperation of all the members. It was also decided to formulate some code of conduct to avoid happening of such incidents in future.
Federal Ministers Rana Sanaullah Khan, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Abdul Aleem Khan, Chaudhry Salik Hussain and MNAs Syed Khurshid Shah and Syed Naveed Qamar (PPP), Tariq Fazal Chaudhry (PML-N), Noor Alam Khan and Shahida Akhtar Ali (JUIP), Ali Muhammad Khan, Amjad Ali Khan and Shandana Gulzar (PTI), Sahibzada Hamid Raza (SIC), Khalid Magsi (Balochistan Awami Party) and Syed Aminul Haq (MQM) attended the meeting at Speaker’s Chamber. Earlier, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that he considers himself unfortunate that he was Speaker when the Parliament House was attacked in 2014 and MNA Salahuddin Ayubi was arrested from the parliamentary lodges. “ Then in 2014, he registered FIR and today again he will not remain silent and will get FIR registered again if accusations of Monday night’s action is proven true”, he said.
In a related development, two bills including the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Pakistan Environmental Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2024 were introduced in the National Assembly. Danyal Chaudhary sought the leave to introduce the bill to further amend the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1997 [The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2024] in the House while Nuzhat Sadiq moved the bill to further amend the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 [The Pakistan Environmental Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2024].
Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah referred them to the standing committees for deliberation as Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that the government had no objection to the introduction of the bills.
