Bilawal, Qureshi engage in war of words ahead of PM Imran’s speech in NA

The National Assembly session on Wednesday became heated after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Foreign Shah Mahmood Qureshi engaged in a fiery debate ahead of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech.

In his speech, Bilawal said that if the government hadn’t “rigged” yesterday’s vote on the federal budget, the whole world would have seen that the prime minister did not have 172 votes. A day earlier, the National Assembly had passed the budget for the new fiscal year with majority vote amid a dismal showing by the opposition. A confident-looking Prime Minister Imran Khan had attended the proceedings for only 50 minutes and left the assembly hall even before final vote on the budget after realising that his presence was no more required in the house to ensure the presence of the treasury members who had clearly outnumbered the opposition. The prime minister had entered the assembly hall at a time when the chair had already ordered a headcount on the demand of the opposition on the motion moved by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin to take up the finance bill for consideration and final vote. The motion was approved with 172-138 votes. During today’s session, Bilawal voiced his protest regarding the way voting was conducted. “It is our right for them [amendments] to be heard, not for them to be rejected in one word by an unelected member.” He stated that according to parliamentary rules, when a voice vote is challenged another voice vote is conducted. “If that is also challenged, then it is your duty to count the votes,” Bilawal said, addressing National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser.

He claimed that members of the National Assembly did not know what they voted for during the last part of the approval process. He said that this undermined the “legitimacy of the budget”, adding that the opposition took this process very seriously.

“Is it not rigging if we can’t record our vote

during the budget debate or during the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) debate. Is this not against the rules,” he questioned.

ernment, you did not allow the opposition leader to speak,” he said.

Source: dawn.comJust weeks after a Pakistani family was murdered in Ontario, a Muslim migrant was attacked in a Canadian province with a knife by two unidentifiedne 6 incident in which four members of a Pakistani family in Ontario were run down by a truck in what police called “a planned, premeditated act, motivated by hate.”