Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Tuesday said Yusuf Raza Gilani was the most compromised leader of the opposition in the Senate as everyone knew very well how he [Gilani] secured the Senate seat. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, he said the House knew that the present leader of the opposition had won the Senate seat by horse-trading and was still facing the case in the Election Commission of Pakistan.
He said there were videos of Gilani’s son who had been making efforts to buy votes for his father in the Senate elections. He said it was the PPP that tricked the PML-N, which was a majority party in the Senate, and managed to win the slot of the opposition leader through unfair means.
Qureshi predicted that the opposition leader would withdraw his resignation as it was just a drama to hoodwink other parliamentarians. He warned the Senators that “the leader of the opposition is the compromised leader and do not rely on him,” and asked why the PPP ignored the seasoned parliamentarians like Mian Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman for the slot of leader of opposition in the Senate.
He said Yusuf Raza Gilani, being a senior parliamentarian, gave an irresponsible statement the other day, accusing the chair of facilitating the passage of the SBP amendment bill. He said the leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem had clarified that the chairman Senate had exercised his right as per the rules and the law.
Qureshi said the opposition leader had been giving clarifications about his absence from the House when the SBP bill was being passed, which was already on orders of the day. He said Gilani portrayed as he was unaware of the bill’s presentation despite the fact the PPP had been opposing it in the National Assembly and was supposed to do the same in the Senate.
The minister said the opposition leader himself asked the independent Senators including Senator Dilawar to ensure their presence in the House on the day when the SBP bill was scheduled to be taken up, but himself skipped from the House proceedings. “This point still remains unresolved.” He said Senator Dilawar came to discuss the bill with the leader of the opposition Yusuf Raza Gilani but found him nowhere.
Qureshi said Senator Dilawar was of the view that the independent lawmakers had their own identity so they exercised their right to vote, after being convinced by the arguments of ministers including Azam Swati, Shibli Faraz and Shaukat Tarin.
FM Qureshi said opposition parties unnecessarily criticized the amendments passed by the House in the State Bank of Pakistan Bill-2022, which were meant to give autonomy to the SBP in line with the ‘economic responsibilities of the government.
He said it was not for the first time that any government would have brought amendments in the SBP act, as the past regimes of PML-N and PPP had been amending the law from time to time. He said the PTI government wanted to make the SBP an independent institution so that no government could use it for personal gains like the previous regimes.
FM Qureshi clarified that the authority to appoint SBP board members would be with the prime minister and the federal cabinet, rejecting the impression of any absolute autonomy to the bank and making it subservient to others. He said the SBP reports would be presented in the Parliament for scrutiny and incorporating positive suggestions, as the government considered the parliament sovereign.
“This institution (SBP) was under the Parliament yesterday and will remain under it tomorrow too.”
