NewsMPs lend support to govt, democracy as joint sitting of Parliament continues
ISLAMABAD: The marathon session of the joint sitting of the parliament continued on the second consecutive day on Wednesday with MPs denouncing Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri and announcing unconditional support to democracy.
On Tuesday, the government seemed to recover from the pressure Imran and Qadri have been exerting since August 14, when Javed Hashmi came in to tender his resignation after parting his ways with Kaptan. Wednesday saw PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi addressing the parliament which was attacked by protesters a couple of days ago.
Parliamentarians from different political parties assured the government of their support and some of them even criticized the government for letting the marchers enter Islamabad.
Khursheed Shah
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah seemed happy after what he said seeing parliament victorious in the prevailing political crisis.
Buoyed by the political parties’ unanimous support to democracy during the joint sitting of the Parliament, the PPP stalwart said:” I am happy as I feel parliament stands victorious,” he said.
“We had told government let the PTI enter Islamabad and stop the Pakistan Awami Tehreek,” he said adding that the PAT was not a political party.
He said: “Being emotional cannot bring success, ultimately patience stands victorious”. Shah urged Nawaz Sharif to impart some patience to his cabinet members too.
Aftab Sherpao
Qaumi Watan Party leader Aftab Khan Sherpao, while addressing the session , said that Nawaz Sharif will stay as the prime minister for the next four years.
Sherpao commended the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) members to attend the session and congratulated Nasir Khattak, Gulzar Khan and Mussarat Ahmed Zaib on making the right decision to support democracy.
He said that it’s the beauty of democracy that the lawmakers were there without a telephone call from someone.
He clarified that they were not with PML-N, but in the opposition and playing their role as an opposition party. He said that the parliament will save the country from the current crisis.
He said that parliament has to decide now whether the PM should resign or not. It is not in the PM’s hands now to decide about his resignation.
He criticized the protesters and said that it was not the democratic way to protest and suggested them to return to their houses flashing the victory sign but to forget about the premier’s resignation.
Aftab Sherpao also condemned the attacks on the parliament and journalists.
He said that all the political parties are united inside the House but the two brothers (Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri) sitting outside the parliament started scheming in London.
He asked the protesting leaders to share the rigging evidences with the opposition at least so that they could also join hands with them in demanding the prime minister’s resignation and dissolution of assemblies.
Aftab Sherpao termed the allegations leveled by Imran Khan on the journalists and lawyers as ‘shameful’ and stated that whoever will speak against them, will have to face allegations.
Zahid Khan
Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Zahid Khan said that all the political parties are standing united with the prime minister to protect democracy and constitution.
Soon after Zahid Khan opened the debate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood and Asad Umer reached the House and were welcomed with noise created by the other members.
On this, Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq ordered them to maintain order in the House as it was not D-Chowk and refrained them from commenting.
Addressing the parliament, Zahid Khan said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should not resign at any cost as it would bring insult to the parliament.
He said that after fourteen months the joint session of the parliament was called but its better to be late than never.
Zahid Khan further said that he was not satisfied with the 18th amendment but still accepted that and there is still opposition against it.
Dubbing the election as ‘selection’, he said that they accepted the election for the sake of country and alleged that biggest fraud was done in his province. He said that while they were lifting the bodies of the martyrs in their province, the leaders were busy in campaigning during elections.
The senator said that the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ditched his province and has come to besiege Islamabad. He said that we should be ashamed of ourselves on pointing fingers at each others.
Furthermore, Senator Zahid Khan said that no one is concerned about the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
He said that they want to save the country and believe that it cannot progress without democratic institutions and that is why they are standing with the prime minister as his resignation would be an insult to 180 million peoples’ mandate. He said that parliament is the best forum to solve issues and that they want to save the constitution.
During his speech, Senator Zahid Khan criticized Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri on taking parliament hostage and saluted senior politician Javed Hashmi on his resignation from the National Assembly.Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk