PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday lambasted the government for its inability to control the tsunami of inflation as a ruckus was created in the National Assembly
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News / Online - 09th May, 2019) PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday lambasted the government for its inability to control the tsunami of inflation as a ruckus was created in the National Assembly."This government has no plan, no mission and no vision," he said, adding that the government had failed to meet its tax targets" he stated this while addressing in National Assembly.Amid protesting noises by the treasury benches, he alleged that the public was "suffering due to the government's incapability".
He repeated his warning that the opposition would not accept any deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unless the government gets it approved by the House.Bilawal once again questioned the sudden appointments of Hafeez Shaikh, Reza Baqir and Shabbar Zaidi as economic adviser, State Bank of Pakistan governor and Federal board of Revenue chairman, respectively. "The government is not telling us why it is doing what it is doing," he lamented and repeated his suspicion that the country's economic decisions were being "taken by the IMF".
"This is not the PTI government any more. This is the PTIMF government," Bilawal declared. His comments drew the ire of the treasury benches."What kind of 'Naya Pakistan' is this? What kind of hypocrisy is this?" he asked. When Speaker Qaiser asked that the word munafiqat be also expunged, Bilawal pointed out that munafiqat was an urdu word, and it was not non-parliamentary. He then clarified that he meant 'hypocrisy'.Bilawal also responded to the protesting treasury members despite Speaker Qaiser's repeated instructions to address him only and said: "Why don't you understand that constructive criticism is in the government's favour? Instead of censoring criticism, lodging FIRs and sending to people to jail, [government should] watch, listen and learn.
He said that the federal government had said that the country was bankrupt because of the 18th Amendment when in reality, the centre was robbing money from all the provinces. He advised the government to "learn from Sindh" and said that the province had always met tax targets and generated revenue.PTI's firebrand MNA Murad Saeed gave an angry response to Bilawal's speech, saying that the current government was "exposing PPP's corruption". He added that Bilawal knew nothing and is not credible enough to talk about Pakistan's issues.
"He just waved a chit, claiming that he has become the chairperson of the PPP," Saeed said. He raised questions over the Sindh government's performance and asked Bilawal to pay attention to the recent death of nine-month-old Nashwa, who had allegedly died due to medical malpractice. Saeed also drew Bilawal's attention to the alarming increase in the number of HIV cases in Larkana.Meanwhile, opposition members gathered around the speaker's dice in protest.
Speaker Qaiser repeatedly asked opposition leaders to return to their benches and urged PML-N's Khawaja Asif to address the Parliament but to no avail. The sitting was then adjourned for prayers.Earlier, minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan has urged private channels to not broadcast indecent programmes in the name of Ramazan transmission. He was responding to a question in the National Assembly during Question Hour.
The Minister of State said PEMRA monitors contents of about fifty-five private channels to check that they are not involved in obscenity, anti-Islamic teachings, and institutions of the country.He said government is not against private channels to earn money, but they should take care of Pakistani culture and Islamic traditions in their content. He said state channels like ptv has always kept showcasing of Pakistani culture and promoting Islamic traditions supreme.
He said that complete monitoring and evaluation of the content shown on PTV is ensured. He said efforts are being made to convert three channels of PTV to High Definition.Responding to a question, Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul said the government is going to prohibit single use plastic bags in the federal capital by 14th August this year.The Minister of State said her ministry distributed cotton bags among Parliamentarians and journalists as an alternative to plastic bags.
She said five thousand cotton bags have been distributed amongst employees of the federal government and more are being procured for distribution in weekly Bazars and other markets free of cost.Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the House that PIA has launched new routes like Sialkot-Sharjah, Lahore-Muscat, Islamabad-Doha and Lahore-Bangkok, Kuala lampur, Sialkot-Paris-Barcelona, Peshawar-Sharjah, Peshawar-AlAin and Multan-Sharjah.
