New – but not shiny

Pakistan signed a number of agreements and MoUs with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE, Qatar etc regarding cooperation in diverse fields including defence, energy etc. But the Imran-led PTI government failed to share anything with the other political parties or produce their details in parliament for debate. The premier did not even come in the National Assembly and take the opposition parties on board on all these key bilateral documents. All the previous governments had presented the terms and conditions of agreements inked with foreign countries in parliament and had debated these openly. During the PPP government everything was discussed in parliament and the then premier Yousaf Raza Gilani would be available to personally respond to any issue coming under debate there.

Where go the tall claims of the incumbent premier which he made while standing on the container – that everything was to be discussed in parliament and nothing of national interest would be hidden from the nation? Now we hardly see our honourable prime minister in parliament sessions. He is represented by a minister holding the portfolio of information. The minister regularly taunts opposition leaders with words like ‘thieves and dacoits’. This is routine now, and the house is then prorogued for the next day. Is this Naya Pakistan?

Guldar Khan Wazir

Loralai