Former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Khurshid Shah demanded that Article 6 of the Constitution should be invoked against Prime Minister Imran Khan over his recent statement in Iran.
While speaking in the National Assembly, the PPP leader said the prime minister’s statement that “Pakistani soil is being used for terror activities” during his recent official visit to Iran was enough to invoke Article 6, which pertains to treason, against the leder of the house.
Shah, spoke after former finance minister Asad Umar delivered a rather critical speech stating “mismanagement” during the PPP’s previous tenure was to blame for the financial woes of Pakistan. Shah said, no one could think of giving such a statement against his own country as was done by the prime minister.
The PPP leader, who said Umar should have stayed in the august house to listen to his reply, adding that hurling accusations was easy, but it was beyond any shadow of a doubt that the prime minister removed him (Umar) for being “incompetent and inept”.
Shah, who put up a calm demeanour during his whole speech, said people were weeping due to the burden of inflation, owing to the incompetence of the current government.
He said it is for the first time in the parliamentary history that opposition parties have offered cooperation to the government to fix the economy.
Shah said when the PPP assumed power in 2008, economies across the globe were facing recession but their government stabilised the economy, provided jobs to the people and, above all, rooted out terrorism and hoisted the national flag in Swat — which was plagued by terrorism, at the time.
The PPP leader said there was no comparison between the PPP and PTI as the latter assumed charge of office without facing big challenges, while the former had to cope with enormous challenges including a tattered economy and terrorism.
He also said, on the one hand, the PTI blames the PPP and the PML-N for the shoddy state of affairs of the economy; on the other hand, they have brought in PPP’s finance minister (Dr Hafeez Sheikh).
Earlier, Asad Umar, while speaking on the floor of the assembly said the PPP and its leadership must not forget that they changed their finance minister four times in their five-year tenure.
The former finance minister said he had no objection on Bilawal Bhutto’s speech – which he said, was picked up by India to launch a propaganda campaign against Pakistan – added, that during the PPP tenure, the economy grew at an average 2.7 percent. Umar also said during their eight-month term, inflation was at an average 6.5 percent while during the PPP tenure, it was at an all-time high, at 12 percent.
He also claimed that the PTI’s budget deficit was far better than that where it stood during the PPP tenure, which witnessed an average deficit of seven percent. Umar also said during the PPP tenure, the FBR’s revenue collection tumbled by eight percent while foreign debt doubled.
Umar also claimed PTI was being criticised for tightening the noose around the corrupt.
