Uproar in Senate over PTI's Gandapur calling Bhutto 'traitor', Nawaz 'thief'

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur's remarks a day earlier about PPP and PML-N leaderships caused a stir in the Senate Wednesday morning.

Senator Raza Rabbani chanted slogans like "this government of bad language, government of hooliganism will not work" in the House, but later apologised after the Senate chairman asked him to stop. Rabbani said that the politics of calling each other bad would lead to disaster.

During an election campaign rally on Tuesday, Gandapur had lashed out at the PPP and PML-N leaderships. In his speech in Azad Kashmir, the minister had declared former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto a traitor and Nawaz Sharif a dacoit. He alleged that Bhutto divided the country just for the sake of prime ministership.

He then turned his guns towards PML-N's Maryam Nawaz and said she claimed to be a Kashmiri, but in fact she is the daughter of Jatts. He alleged that the PPP and PML-N broke all records of corruption.

PPP leader and Senator Moula Bux Chandio said that yesterday an "abusive minister of this abusive government" called Bhutto a traitor. "They are paving the way for a new confrontation," Senator Chandio said. PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, too, was furious over Gandapur's remarks. "How did he [Ali Gandapur] dare to say that Bhutto is a traitor," Rehman asked, saying that there is a limit to the use of abusive language.

"Who are these people who give certificates of treason," Rehman questioned and asked if Bhutto was a traitor because he brought in the nuclear programme into the country. "Is Bhutto a traitor because he brought your troops back?" she asked. PML-N Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar thought Gandapur, being a govt minister, should be ashamed at the language used by him for Bhutto, Nawaz and Maryam.