We have become victims of dictators in suits: Saad

Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: The PPP and the PML-N reverted to the politics of the 1990s by indulging in personal attacks on each other’s leadership during the budget debate in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

As the budget debate entered its final stage, the opposition and treasury benches indulged in personal attacks on each other’s leadership instead of focusing on the budget. On Wednesday, a fuming Khawaja Saad Rafique (PML-N) had an altercation with the Speaker National Assembly, Dr Fehmida Mirza, following which the Speaker ordered that Rafique’s microphone be switched off. She later gave him permission to complete his speech on the intervention of another PML-N legislator, Pervez Malik. During his speech, Rafique focused his criticism on President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, with the Speaker intervening to try and get him to focus on the budget. The MNA in return asked the Speaker to act as the custodian of the whole House and not just of the PPP. “I have not named any one, nor addressed any one,” Rafique said.

The Speaker said she had also asked the ministers to remain focused on the subject. She expunged several of Rafique’s remarks, which he protested. In his speech, Rafique accused the president and prime minister of wearing designer suits worth Rs500,000 while the poor of the country were unable to afford basic meals. He also accused the PPP of becoming a partner of the establishment and said while the PML-N had learnt from past mistakes, the PPP had not. “We got rid of a dictator in uniform but became victims of dictators who wear suits,” he added.

Rafique said one of the federal ministers was running the PPP’s election campaign in Azad Kashmir using money from the Benazir Income Support Fund. He lamented that the goal of strengthening democratic institutions for which the PPP and PML-N had jointly struggled hadn’t yet been achieved. He said Parliament had passed a unanimous resolution against drone attacks but no steps were taken to prevent them since the rulers had turned Pakistan into a slave of the International Monetary Fund and the United States.

Rafique asked the government to control corruption and work to strengthen democracy in the country. He said no steps were taken to stop leakages of around Rs400 billion in state-run enterprises. He also said the House should express solidarity with journalists who were staging a protest demonstration in front of the Parliament House against violence and threats.

PPP Punjab president Imtiaz Safdar Warraich said hooliganism by the PML-N during the budget was one of the saddest events in Pakistan’s parliamentary history. “We do not expect such behaviour from those who signed the Charter of Democracy.”