Amendment to Army Act: PML-N has finished opposition’s role with unconditional support, says Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday said the PML-N has brought an end to the role of opposition by offering unconditional support to the Army Act amendment bill.

He said the PPP was not taken into confidence over the matter. However, he said referring of the bill to Standing Committee on Defence a success for the Parliament and democratic system.

“Today we have been told that the bill will be presented in Defence Committee. I think that this is a small success for our Parliament, for our democratic system and for our parliamentary norms,” he said while addressing a press conference at the Parliament House.

Bilawal criticised the PML-N for announcing unconditional support to the amendment in Army Act without taking the other opposition parties into confidence.

“I have 50 votes in the assembly and cannot affect even a coma or full stop in the law. I think that the way the PML-N and PTI want to pass this bill and want to sidestep the parliamentary procedure will harm our institution, our army, and we are repeating the same mistakes which were done in notification phase,” he said.

He said that if the government and PML-N have announced unconditional support then the PPP cannot change a coma or full stop. “It is the responsibility of leader of opposition to keep the opposition united and create consensus,” he said.

Bilawal said when the Supreme Court has ordered that Parliament should take up this issue then the parliamentary procedure must be adopted “I told the government that if they need the support of PPP then they would have to adopt the parliamentary procedure,” he said. The PPP chairman said he thinks that if this bill, without being circulated among the members, without going to Defence Committee, was passed, then it would have not been good for our institutions.

Bilawal said he did not know why the government was in such haste and he still have some confusion about the government’s stance. He said the government should have engaged opposition from the beginning. Asked whether he thinks that extension is the correct decision, Bilawal said in the past the PPP had taken such step according to the situation and now the government and the prime minister think that they should take this step.

About NAB ordinance, he said the government is coming to the PPP’s narrative that NAB and business cannot go together. On health condition of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal said they have transferred the medical file of Zardari to hospital in Karachi and are reviewing the tests which were conducted in hospital in Islamabad.