Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif on Monday told PML-N lawmakers that the opposition had “not tried to take political advantage” during the crisis-like situation that had resulted from religious groups’ countrywide protests against the acquittal of Asia Bibi last week.
Sharif, who is currently in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), was chairing a meeting of PML-N’s parliamentary party at the Parliament House.
According to a series of tweets by the PML-N, Sharif during the meeting briefed party members on the steps that helped in improving the law and order situation in the country in the past few days.
“[Sharif] briefed party members on the positive role played by the opposition during recent sit-ins,” the party said in a tweet.
According to PML-N party leaders, the opposition is expected to criticise the adjournment of the session on Friday after a lawmaker pointed out lack of quorum five minutes after it started.
Ahead of Monday’s session set to start at 5pm, a NAB team brought Shehbaz to Parliament House, where he held a meeting with former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq, PML-N’s Sindh representative Shah Muhammad Shah and MNA Kheal Das regarding the affairs of the party’s organisations across the country.
According to PML-N party sources, Sharif also met his lawyer Amjad Pervaiz with his team during which the ongoing NAB cases against him were discussed. The PML-N president, whose physical remand is to end day after tomorrow, consulted his lawyer about their future strategy.
The adjournment of Friday’s NA session considerably irked the opposition, which had already expressed its disappointment a day earlier over Prime Minister Imran Khan’s absence from the Lower House at a time when the country was facing nationwide protests by religious groups.
Soon after a recitation from the Holy Quran, Agha Hassan of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) had pointed out lack of quorum. Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri subsequently ordered a head count and then adjourned the session till Monday after finding that the quorum was not complete.
Under the rules, the presence of one-fourth of the members (86) of the 342-member house is required to maintain quorum.The opposition later used the adjournment of the assembly as a pretext to refuse a meeting with a government delegation that had requested bipartisan support for a parliamentary resolution against the protesters.
