Addressing the National Assembly on Monday, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), called on “political elders” to take decisions that make politics easier for the youth, who he lamented were losing hope in the country’s future.
“[Asif] Zardari sahib and Mian [Nawaz Sharif] sahib should take decisions that make politics easier for me and Maryam Sharif, instead of making it difficult,” he said in his farewell speech, indirectly indicating his displeasure with the policies of his father and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader. “It seems that our elders have decided that whatever they suffered in their 30-year-long political career, they want us to suffer in the same way over the next 30 years,” he regretted, stressing that political parties needed to focus on the youth and restore their trust in the political process.
Noting that nearly 65 percent of the country’s population was under-30, he said steps that “rob them of their hopes” should be avoided. To achieve this, he proposed, all political parties and state institutions must engage in dialogue to either devise a new charter of democracy or adhere to the one inked between his mother, Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz in 2006. Clarifying the need to include other institutions in this process, he said time had come to conclusively decide whether WAPDA would be run “by its federal minister or a chief justice” of the Supreme Court.
“We need to settle the rules of games and decide which code of conduct we are to follow, the premise of which should not only be limited to interactions among political parties but also with institutions,” he said, recalling that the incumbent Parliament had witnessed “history” when a prime minister had been removed from office through a constitutional procedure.
“History will be the judge of whether we were successful in our efforts or not,” he said, referring to a need for state institutions to function within their domains. He regretted that the incumbent government had “somehow failed” to keep institutions within their domain during its 16-month tenure.
Legislations adopted
The Lower House continued its spree of passing legislations as the government prepares for its exit. Among the legislations passed on Monday was the watered-down Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which was approved by the Senate a day earlier. The bill had already passed in the National Assembly before proceeding to the Senate, but the amendments introduced by the Upper House necessitated its re-approval in the Lower House prior to its passage into law.
Presenting the bill, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the Senate had removed a controversial clause granting intelligence agencies to conduct raids or detain “anyone” at “any time” without warrants. Additionally, he said, the Senate had removed a clause that had declared “unintentional” offenses criminal.
The Lower House also passed the the National Commission for Minorities Bill, 2023; the Federal Prosecution Service Bill, 2023; the Pakistan International Airline Corporation (Conversion) (Amendment) Bill, 2023; the Higher Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023; the Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding (Amendment) Bill, 2023] and the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences and Technology, Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
The National Assembly will meet again today (Tuesday) at 5 p.m.