ISLAMABAD: The largely forgotten forum of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary party has at last been revived and rejuvenated after a long time.
A participant told The News that it was a marathon session with a 90-minute speech of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who also fielded questions from the members of the National Assembly, who complained against certain ministers for being inaccessible. He directed his cabinet colleagues to be available to the lawmakers and there should be no such complaint in future.
Such a session that the parliamentary party held on Thursday was last organised on the eve of the election of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq as the speaker of the National Assembly way back in June 2013. After that the premier has a multitude of other pressing assignments to grapple with, and could not spare time for the parliamentary party. Its members continued to call for its frequent sessions.
The discussions in the parliamentary party always generate ideas for its government. The platform also serves to provide its members an opportunity to do catharsis apart from highlighting the problems and grievances of their respective constituencies before the prime minister to address them immediately.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s schedule of Nawaz Sharif amply showed that he was completely healthy and geared up for his feverish activities. He addressed a conference of interior ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Conference (Saarc), chaired the parliamentary party meeting and held a meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif besides other engagements of the day.
The idea to convene the ruling parliamentary party was being mulled over for quite some time. Some key party figures projected the view that the parliamentary panel should be taken into confidence on a large number of projects and initiatives the government has taken and the swift progress on them.
The premier used the occasion to take on his political opponents in an implied manner saying that people are fully aware who indulges in politics of anarchy and who works for development. Obviously, this was a thinly veiled reference to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which keeps attacking him day in and day out. After a long time, he dwelt on the PTI’s campaign.
He gave an overview of his policies and projects and stated that he demonstrated tolerance in politics and allowed his allies to form government in Balochistan. He talked about the massive improvement in the security situation because of the operation Zarb-e-Azb and acclaimed the sacrifices of the Pakistan army and other forces in this fight.
His special focus was on the unparalleled fruits of the historic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) especially the energy and road network projects. “Chinese investment of $46 billion in Pakistan is not something ordinary; it is phenomenal and unprecedented,” he said.
The prime minister briefed the parliamentary party about the much improved situation in Karachi, where he said investors were not coming three years back as against the present scenario. He said his priority was to provide cheap electricity and not only to meet the nagging energy shortage.
Responding to his detractors’ allegations, he emphasised that there was not a single case of corruption or kickbacks against the government, which showed total transparency and honesty on its part.
He dilated on consistent electoral gains in by-polls and general elections in different regions after the 2013 general polls. He was as usual critical of dictator Pervez Musharraf and his supporters, who should be brought to the parliament and made to explain why they did not undertake even a single energy project.
For quite some time, senior government leaders and officials working with the prime minister have been broaching and exploring the ideas that the government can implement in its remaining tenure of 18 months, which are more people friendly. They have been apprising the prime minister about the result of such brainstorming sessions.