Parliament ‘undermined to forcibly pass’ FATF bills, says Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday said the Constitution and Parliament were “undermined to forcibly pass” bills crucial to the requirements laid out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for Pakistan to exit its “grey list”, Geo News reported.

Addressing an All-Parties Conference arranged by the Pakistan Bar Council, Bilawal questioned how long can the Parliament be accepted as a mere “rubber stamp”. Bilawal lamented that National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser “did not recount votes” during the legislative process, despite repeated calls from the opposition parties to do so.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PPP chairman said people are told that they live in the State of Madinah “but in this state, a woman gets raped on a motorway”. “However, the ones who are responsible for the people’s security, instead of blaming the rapists, they question the victims,” he said, adding: “And the state’s ministers and Prime Minister come forward to defend them.”

Bilawal said the political parties’ complaints about the National Accountability Bureau were old, but during the incumbent government’s tenure even the media is not free to report.

Bilawal said that when PPP had earlier called for defending the 18th Amendment and the National Finance Commission, people said that the PPP was “defending its corruption”. “However, now, I am happy that many parties are supporting us,” Bilawal said. “The way and procedure of judges’ appointments should be decided by the people and the forum of the people is the Parliament,” he said. Bilawal hoped that after the APC, the opposition would get rid of this “hybrid government to free the country”.

Furthermore, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said the media in Pakistan today was being suppressed to an unprecedented level. “Media workers have sacrificed their lives and struggled to get their freedom,” he said, adding: “Editor-in-Chief Jang and Geo Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman is being subjected to injustice.”

“Accountability cannot be done if faces are considered and not cases,” he said, adding that half of the people in the cabinet are those who cannot be saved if they are held accountable, calling for across-the-board accountability.