PPP’s welcome obsession with sanctity of parliament

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has copiously demonstrated its obsession with sanctity of the parliament and harshly taken on its ‘cursers’. It has publicly shown that it is severely distressed and aggravated much more than any other political entity including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) over the cursing of the parliament by Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was isolated in the Sindh assembly when a resolution denouncing Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid’s “curse” mantra was taken up and approved without any hassle. All the other parliamentary parties even the opposition forces joined hands in passing the motion. The PTI’s feeble voice drowned in the power of the majority.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) was among the sponsors of the resolution, which made it clear that it was also equally anguished over the comments of the PTI chairman and Sheikh Rashid.

Not only in Sindh, but also at the federal level, all the parliamentary players have come out with one voice in deploring the abuses hurled over the legislature by these two leaders. The PPP was also the initiator of a similar resolution in the National Assembly after fiery speeches against Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid.

The approval of such a motion in the Sindh assembly by the PPP was not a problem in the Sindh assembly because it has a firm grip over the provincial legislature. The PML-N, which controls the Punjab assembly, is yet to sponsor such a move in this chamber.

Although grapevine has it that according to the script, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh assemblies are to be dissolved to sabotage the on-time Senate elections and the parliamentary polls, the PPP continues to speak against quitting the legislatures to implement any undemocratic agenda. Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah has stated again that the PPP is a democratic party and would not derail the system by leaving the assemblies. “Imran Khan and his party lawmakers pocketed Rs110 million as salaries and other privileges, and he personally got Rs70/80 million. After the PTI chairman’s announcement about resignations, his legislators should have immediately quit.”

Senior PPP leader and Sindh Minister Nisar Khuro stated that cursing the parliament was contempt of the voters, who exercised their right of franchise. “Nobody should vote for Imran Khan in the next election as he has lost his mental balance. He should think before speaking and tender an apology to the nation for disgracing the parliament.” However, the PTI chairman is not in the habit of retracting even his highly objectionable observations, and he thus poses himself as a daring politician, who doesn’t back out. After his rant at the Lahore protest hosted by Allama Tahirul Qadri against the legislature, he tweeted that when a Parliament, which must protect nation's interests, passes a person-specific law allowing a disqualified person guilty of Rs3 billion money laundering, tax evasion, concealment of assets, forgery and perjury to become head of a political party, then such a law is a "laanath" on Parliament.

His party colleagues have repeated his “curse” on the legislature, which has provoked the defenders of the parliament to attack them. In this tussle, the PTI is on one side, standing alone, while all the other parliamentary forces are on the other, decrying Imran Khan and his associates. First it was Sheikh Rashid who, in his speech to the Lahore rally, repeatedly yelled curse on the parliament and announced to quit the National Assembly. On his turn, Imran Khan agreed with him and also cursed the legislature.

Due to the dismal turnout, the Lahore show, which damaged the opposition parties instead of benefiting them in any way, went into the background, and the objectionable remarks made by the duo continue to reverberate in the political and parliamentary arenas. It is anybody’s guess what impact, negative or positive, their adverse comments against the parliament will have on the voters in the next election when the grand electoral exercise is just four months away.