PPP says Imran has failed as PM

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Friday questioned the absence of Prime Minister Imran Khan from the prorogued session of the National Assembly on COVID-19 to take the nation in confidence on the pandemic.

“Either Prime Minister Imran Khan is missing or he is highly irresponsible that is why he did not attend the National Assembly session,” said Secretary Information PPP Parliamentarians Dr. Nafisa Shah in a statement.

She said Imran Khan addresses press conferences with unelected associates and blames people for getting sick because of Covid-19.” Other treasury bench members instead of talking on the pandemic in Parliament attack the opposition,” she said.

She said it was usual for Imran Khan to leave the nation alone in every crisis and sabotage every ‘positive measures’ taken by the opposition.“Imran Khan has failed miserably to function as prime minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, PPP leader and former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani Friday said the federal government continued to violate Article 89 of the Constitution, as it deliberately failed to lay the three ordinances before Parliament, which were promulgated during the virus crisis.

“This act is condemned, as Article 89 of the Constitution 1973 requires that an ordinance promulgated shall be laid before either House, if not a money bill, in the first session after such promulgation,” he said while talking to The News on Friday.

Rabbani said the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance No 1 of 2020 promulgated on April 17 had altered the tax structure and should have been passed or rejected by Parliament in its just concluded sessions because Article 77 of the Constitution 1973 states that no tax shall be levied for the federation except by an Act of Parliament. “Let alone being passed, it was not even laid before the National Assembly,” he said.