ISLAMABAD: On Monday, the opposition – keeping in view the tradition – on Monday tried its best to drown President Asif Ali Zardari’s address at the joint seat of parliament.
Although speech television broadcasts pointed out the cameras on the dice or treasury benches, noise protests and slogans can be heard during the president’s speech.
In the National Assembly Chamber, PTI members chanted slogans, screaming, desks and shouting slogans. Many people had posters of PTI jail founder Imran Khan.
The Dean of PTI members was so high that it forced government members – including Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, whose seat is in line with the bench in front of the opposition – to use the headphones to listen to President Zardari’s speech.
Although in the House, Achakzai and JUIF members did not join the PTI noise.
Prime Minister’s leader Omar Ayub, who was sitting across the prime minister, kept beating his desk with a book throughout the speech.
Treasury members pressured to focus on his words, no one reacted to the opposition’s protest.
On this occasion, leading state workers were also given the opportunity to talk. More than half of the two Houses of Parliament were present at the meeting, which was jointly chaired by President Zardari, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar Hawk were also involved with a whole host of foreign diplomats.
CM Mary, who is sitting in the visitors’ gallery, who faces opposition benches, seems to have become a target of their oral attacks. In fact, the opposition lawmakers did not save them a chance to provoke it through their slogans.
But it did not seem that it was phased to the CM of Punjab, who was busy salving the men and women who came to pay their seat to pay their price.
Despite the screams of opposition members, President Zardari remained steadfast and kept making his speech till the end.
Although members of the Pashtun Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (Joy F) were also sitting on the opposition benches, they did not join the PTI protests.
Contrary to the PTI and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervez Khatak, who recently became the Prime Minister’s adviser, appeared to be unwanted among the members of the ruling party, as he appeared to be far away from the first leadership of the PML-N.
Prior to the start of the presidential address, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif went to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto to make a handful of hands, and he also paid Bilawal’s younger sister, Jasifa, who was sitting nearby, regarding Bilawal’s younger sister, Aifa.
Security arrangements for the address were strict, and a large number of sergeants arms arranged the entrances of the NA Hall, which was ready to deal with any unpleasant situation.
Dawn, appeared on March 11, 2025
