Maryam’s tone regrettable: PPPP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Sunday said the tone of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz was regrettable, while the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had kept the tone political and democratic in his press conferences.

She said this while addressing a press conference along with PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman at the Zardari House here, says a press release. Shazia said they knew how to respond to sarcasm adding that the PPP was ridiculed for the deal but someone else got the slack.

“We do not want to prolong the fighting. We want serious politics in this country. The government should rule seriously if it wants to govern. If the opposition parties want to oppose it, they should also be serious. We don’t have to talk about complaints. We also have a long list of complaints," she added. "We have grievances with the person who was nominated by the PML-N as the leader of the opposition without consultation," she added.

Speaking on the occasion, Sherry Rehman said the third wave of Covid-19 was extremely dangerous but the government’s messaging was as confused as ever. She said the premier was conducting meetings while being COVID positive.

“Instead of providing free vaccine to the poor who are the most exposed, ‘Na Ehl Sarkar’ has conveniently placed the responsibility on private sector. Local price of SputnikV is a whopping 150% higher than international prices. Whereas, globally, governments are giving free access to vaccines but here the ‘Tabahi Sarkar’ has made them unaffordable”.

She said so far 0.25% of our population had been given at least one dose of the vaccine, whereas the total number of vaccines administered were 0.4 million. “If we compare these figures with that of Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, India or Nepal, we are behind them all. Allowing private companies to import vaccines and exempting them from price caps will only create inequalities. Our people are already struggling because of inflation and unemployment caused by this government. How can they afford such high prices of the vaccine?” she questioned.

Discussing the IMF’s decision to release its next tranche of $500 million for Pakistan, Senator Rehman said, “It is shocking considering the government claim that it will not borrow money but we must not forget the strict conditions that have been met to make this possible. The government is conveniently covering up the adjustments, all which will have an impact on the people of Pakistan”.

“Tabahi Sarkar has re-entered IMF’s $6 bn programme and has taken a loan of $1.3 bn from the World Bank to run the country. A burden of billions has been shifted to the local masses through indirect taxes and hyperinflation while sweeping tax concessions have been given to PTI cronies abroad,” she added.

Responding to questions about the political situation in the PDM, she said, "We did not use inappropriate language when there was suddenly an unopposed walkover in the Punjab provincial assembly for the PML-N candidates after we had stood down our candidate in support of the N".

"If I start off on accusations, then it will be a long story. We do not see any future in pushing aside non-constitutional options first. We have seen what happened to boycotts in 1985 and that is why we advised the N League, even in APDM days, not to boycott elections and defeat General Musharraf via the parliamentary and political process. That is how President Zardari removed him. If we boycott or resign now, the rights of smaller provinces will suffer a terrible setback as we will leave all forums open for the PTI to run a bulldozer over our parliamentary accomplishments done via the Charter of Democracy," she added.

She said, "Now I hear from a senior N League office-bearer that they will not resign given the PPP’s decision. It’s okay if our name and shoulder is used to come to more sensible political decisions. No point pushing a few parties to the wall, as dictation is not the way to run alliances".

Talking about the Leader of the Opposition in Senate, Sherry said it is always the right of the single largest party in the parliament. If it was so unimportant, then why did the N League make unilateral announcements for it and cite one meeting where only the PPP member had the mandate to discuss the chairman and deputy chairmanship candidates. She said the PDM was created to hold the government accountable and to dismantle their fake, artificial hold on parliament, which was the path to government and to public representation.

“PPP is not responding to N League's inappropriate personal attacks because we believe this will hurt the PDM and hurting the PDM means giving space to an unacceptable, unaccountable selected government whose last days have come," concluded Senator Sherry Rehman.