Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, addressing the National Assembly on Wednesday, said that he took no pleasure in rising
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, addressing the National Assembly on Wednesday, said that he took no pleasure in rising to defend the imposition of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but intended to vote in favour of the federal government’s decision. He reiterated his Party’s resolve to resolve political issues through negotiations.
Chairman Bilawal read out Article 232 of the Constitution and said that the Government of Pakistan had made every effort to politically engage the opposition to avoid having to take this step. While the opposition had the right to oppose the decision, it also had to acknowledge its responsibility for the prevailing situation. Although the opposition might not admit this publicly, its responsible leadership was aware that the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had inflicted a political suicide attack upon itself. The PTI could accuse the federal government and the President of Pakistan, but it could not deny its own responsibility or its significant role in creating the political, legal and constitutional circumstances currently prevailing in KP.
He said that if the federal government had conveyed that KP was facing a war-like situation and that the internal security situation was beyond its capacity to manage or counter terrorism effectively, the PTI government should have provided a justification for the President not to sign the decision. Neither the President nor the PPP had been given any reason to withhold support for the federal government’s decision.
He said that when the decision was conveyed to the President and the PPP first became aware of it, the Party maintained that, before resorting to this constitutional atom bomb, the PTI and the opposition had to be engaged in dialogue. The PPP had informed the opposition that the federal government’s principal objection was that the PTI government in KP was not supporting the war against terrorism. The question, therefore, was how these objections could be addressed to ensure that there was no legal or constitutional justification, or political pretext, for taking this step.
Two PPP representatives were part of the committee negotiating with the opposition. Late at night, he was informed that the negotiations were close to success and that the opposition was likely to agree to the provincial government declaring the areas affected by terrorism in KP as terrorist-affected areas. Regarding counterterrorism efforts at the national and provincial levels, the opposition had also agreed that the federal government, the KP provincial government and the KP Chief Minister would work out an agreement on how to combat terrorism jointly. “I really thought that we had achieved a very huge political success,” he said.
Chairman Bilawal reiterated on the floor of the House what he had already stated publicly, if political space was narrowed for one political party, it was impossible to restrict it to that party alone. Such restrictions affected every political party, political worker and Pakistani citizen. “We are also responsible for this, but the opposition cannot deny that they are also responsible,” he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Pakistan had reached a point where it had been compelled to take the difficult decision to impose emergency in a province facing terrorism originating from Afghanistan, while the Chief Minister of that province was taking an oath from people at a public gathering that they would not fight the terrorists. “If this was not political suicide, then what was it?” he asked.
He said that the PPP was a Party whose workers and leadership had made supreme sacrifices and embraced martyrdom. In view of the opposition’s actions and statements, no political, legal or constitutional justification remained for the President, him or anyone else to refuse to sign the document.
“Now we have taken this legal and constitutional step, but even today, my suggestion to the federal government is to offer negotiations to the opposition to resolve the issues and find a middle ground once again. We offer negotiations to the opposition,” he said.
