ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday called for mid-term polls as he announced his decision to quit as chairman of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary party in Parliament House, Shehbaz said the party has decided that Rana Tanveer Hussain will be chairman of PAC, and he is bound to follow the party’s decision.
Shehbaz said his party intends to be the voice of the public and vowed to speak for their rights after the ‘anti-people’ budget was passed in the National Assembly on Friday.
Claiming that he had “never seen such an anti-public and oppressive budget in the history of Pakistan before”, Shehbaz said that expensive medicines used to be free in government hospitals during his party’s rule while the PTI government not only raised the prices of medicines but also stopped their free provision in hospitals.
He also said that PML-N had decided to resign from the parliamentary committee formed to probe election rigging.
“The rigging committee has not convened for four months therefore we have decided to quit it,” he said.
The announcement came a day after the opposition collectively failed to mount a successful challenge to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s budget for fiscal 2020.
“The only solution to the present situation is a fresh election,” the opposition leader continued. He also backtracked from his position on the ‘charter of economy’ after his niece and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s blistering criticism last week of his proposal for the opposition and government to arrive at a common ground.
“I am bound to obey Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
‘LOSERS OF POLLS CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER DEFEAT’:
In response to Shehbaz’s announcement, Special Assistant to PM on Political Affairs Naeem ul Haq said that Shehbaz’s call for mid-term elections “shows his naivety hence cannot be taken seriously”.
“The passage of the federal finance bill despite the opposition’s shenanigans is an achievement of PM Imran Khan and his cabinet,” he said in a statement released by the party’s central media department.
Haq further stated that “losers of general elections 2018 cannot afford another defeat”.
He said that the behaviour demonstrated by the opposition during the National Assembly session “exposed its agenda of chaos and anarchy”.
“Joint opposition including Shehbaz Sharif blatantly threatened to impede the passage of the budget and the whole nation has witnessed how the opposition sought to disrupt parliamentary proceedings,” said the PTI leader.
He went on to add that both leading opposition parties held parliament hostage for weeks over the issue of chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee.
Referring to the multi-party conference held by opposition parties in Islamabad, Haq said that its purpose was “to instigate chaos”.
He also sought to assert that the opposition’s attempts to remove the Senate chairman and “hijack state institutions” will be met with resistance.
“Neither will we be deterred by vicious designs of criminals nor will give any relief to them in the ongoing accountability,” he concluded.
