Political parties need to hold dialogue on the Charter of Reconciliation & Charter of Economy: Bilawal Bhutto

ISLAMABAD, March 04 (SABAH): Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has endorsed the invitation extended by Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif for Charter of Reconciliation.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Monday, Bilawal Bhutto said the opposition should respond positively to the offer of Shehbaz Sharif and sit with the government to find a solution to the economic difficulties. He emphasized that the political parties need to hold dialogue on the Charter of Reconciliation and Charter of Economy.

The PPP Chairman said the people are looking towards their elected representatives to lead the country out of multidimensional challenges faced by the country including those on the economic front. 

He welcomed the Prime Minister’s elect announcement to provide subsidy to the farmers on fertilizers.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari felicitated Shehbaz Sharif on his election as the Prime Minister. He also extended felicitation to the provincial Chief Ministers on their election, stressing that they all have to work together to strengthen the economy and democracy.

The PPP Chairman said the Parliament is the mother of all institutions, and if this institution is strengthened, it will ultimately empower the people.

Bilawal Bhutto endorsed the demand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to form a judicial commission to investigate the May 9’s violent incidents.

Bilawal requested the PM to plead to Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa to constitute an investigation commission headed by the top judge himself in the May 9 incidents. And, he said, the PTI and the other parties would also have to accept the findings of the commission.

Bilawal urged all the political parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to sit together for a charter of national reconciliation and rescue the nation out of inflation.

He appealed his “friends” on the opposition benches to become part of the national political process. He said the people of Pakistan through their votes announced such a verdict following which they would be coerced to take decisions jointly.

“The masses of Pakistan are sending this message that they are fatigued by our infighting. If the people wanted, they would have given one political party a majority,” he said adding that they all should work on national reconciliation and hold talks on the issues of national interest.

He said judicial and electoral reforms would have to be introduced and he would like the opposition to participate in bringing reforms so that no party would have to feel remorse over the next elections. So that, he said, the next time nobody could raise a finger whether Shehbaz Sharif won the election or “prisoner number 804”.

“You know how difficult it is to contest an election. Every day is a battle and the biggest battle is on the election day,” he said.

Bilawal endorsed the invitation extended by PM Shehbaz Sharif for the charter of reconciliation and said the opposition should respond positively to the offer and sit with the government to find a solution to the economic difficulties.

He emphasised that the political parties needed to hold dialogue on the Charter of Reconciliation and Charter of Economy.

The PPP chairman said the people were looking towards their elected representatives to lead the country out of the multidimensional challenges faced by the country including those on the economic front.

Bilawal requested the house members to protect the people from economic crisis as commodity prices were multiplying but income was not. He invited all the stakeholders to sit together and get Pakistan out of difficulty.

The former foreign minister said he differed with the leader of the opposition’s statement that their ideology was different. He claimed that Ayub would not know his party’s mandate as much as he did.

He said about nine years ago a family could buy edible commodities for Rs4,000 but now it required at least Rs17,000.

The PPP chairman said it would be great if the opposition gave their opinion on PM Shehbaz Sharif’s policy, but if they did not opine on the policy then they did not have the right to object to it.

He reiterated that there were 18 such ministries that should have dissolved in 2015.

The PPP chief said those were his party’s points, while the SIC and other parties would also have their points to make.

Lamenting the protests by members of the House during the speeches of the PM-elect and leader of the opposition in Sunday’s session, Bilawal said that the people were disappointed of seeing lawmakers hurl allegations and abuses at each other in the parliament.

Recalling Omar Ayub Khan’s complaint that the opposition members’ speeches were not being broadcast on the state-run PTV, Bilawal said: “We should not continue this tradition [of censorship] set by Khan sahib.”

“We have to make decisions that strengthen this House and brighten the country’s future,” the PPP chairman said while stressing that the people have voted in the February 8 polls to bring themselves out of poverty.

“Our colleagues would have been able to listen to the prime minister’s speech if they had not been protesting,” he noted.

Responding to the remarks made by the PPP chairman regarding the cipher case, wherein the ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s was sentenced to 10 years, Asad Qaiser called for the constitution of a judicial commission to investigate the controversy.

Khan was sentenced on the cases that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had termed as “lies”, Qasier said while taking a jibe at the Shehbaz Sharif-led party.

Lamenting the alleged crackdown on party leadership and workers, the former NA speaker stressed that the PTI founder didn’t flee — in the wake of the crackdown and legal woes — and will not compromise on his principles.

“Neither our leader nor we would compromise,” he added while calling for the party leadership to be released along with the withdrawal of cases filed against top leadership, including Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi.

In response to Bilawal’s remarks calling for stakeholders to sit together, Qaiser questioned whether the PPP supremo was unaware of the worst election rigging in the country’s history in the February 8 polls.

Expressing his views, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui while seemingly referring to the political turmoil both inside and outside the parliament, lamented that “democracy is losing its case” as the country remains gripped in multi-faceted crises after 22 years of continued democracy.

Responding to the rigging allegations regarding the February 8 polls, Siddiqui said: “You were ‘made to lose in the 2024 polls’ the same way you ‘were made to win’ in the 2018 [elections].” “Someone else would force the politicians to sit [together] if political forces do not engage in dialogue themselves,” he noted.

To this, SIC members once again resorted to protests and slogans leading to Siddiqui’s remarks to which the MQM-P leader said: “They [the opposition] don’t understand [and] are getting angry when I’m talking in their favour”.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said they do not believe in destructive but constructive opposition. He expressed the confidence that the opposition will be equally treated in the house.

At the start of the National Assembly session, lawmakers condemned the alleged raid at the residence of Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai in Quetta.

On his turn for address, the PPP chairman said he came across the news of the raid at Achakzai’s house which he condemned and appealed Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti to investigate the incident.

He said the PkMAP chairman was a presidential candidate too and the presidential election was being made controversial through the incident.

NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said he was unaware of the happening.

The PPP chief requested the speaker to allow Achakzai to speak as he probably wanted to say something.

Achakzai then apprised the House that his 200 relatives and friends had died in the fight inflicted upon his house for last 15 years. He said the political parties would have to sit together to rescue the country out of the crisis.

Slamming the raid, PTI leader Omar Ayub said they would present a resolution in the NA against the incident.

Omar Ayub also raised objection over his NA speech not being telecasted live on media. When the PTI leader tried to talk about Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, his mic was muted.

The speaker said as per the rules you could not say such a thing. When Ayaz Sadiq allowed him to speak again, Omar Ayub demanded removal of the Punjab inspector general holding him responsible for a young PTI worker’s getting injured. He also requested the custodian of the house to level responsibility of the incident on CM Maryam Nawaz Sharif. The PTI leader also presented a motion of privilege against stopping of his speech.

 

The house has now been adjourned to meet again on Friday at 5:00 pm.