NA session ‘turns into battlefield’ during Shehbaz Sharif’s anti-govt speech; budget book thrown at opposition leader

Sharif’s speech was disrupted by loud jeers, slogans and whistles from the members from the treasury benches.

As PTI legislators encircled the former Punjab chief minister, PML-N lawmakers and other opposition members formed a protective circle around him. The treasury benches kept raising their slogans whenever Sharif lambasted the government’s economic policies. 

"Imran Khan Niazi promised 10 million jobs. Where are those jobs?" asked Sharif. "Where are the $300bn that were supposed to be brought back to the country from abroad?"

Continuing to lash out at the government, he said that PM Imran Khan's claims of eliminating corruption from Pakistan were hollow. 

"Pakistan is suffering from the worst form of corruption today," he said. "No act of posting or transferring someone these days is done without an element of corruption these days," added Shehbaz. 

He criticised the government's budget, saying that it had failed to provide relief to the masses amid spiralling unemployment and inflation. 

Speaker Asad Qaiser kept interjecting, requesting lawmakers on the treasury benches to refrain from shouting while the leader of the Opposition spoke. 

However, no one listened and the Opposition leader continued, wearing headphones to drown out the noise. 

"They accuse us of generating 'useless power'. If that is the case, why are people suffering from loadshedding these days?" asked Shahbaz.

Shehbaz said that during the government of his brother, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan had set up power plants across the country and ended the menace of loadshedding. 

He said the country was heading towards economic prosperity then, whereas now, everything was on the decline, even the per capita income. 

As Shehbaz spoke, tempers rose when the government and Opposition lawmakers came face-to-face. 

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Ali Nawaz Awan could be seen in a video clip, responding in kind to abusive language by a PML-N lawmaker.

A woman lawmaker attempted to pull the PTI MNA away from the group of legislators who were shoving each other. He could be seen in the video, throwing a booklet at the PML-N leader and shouting angrily at him.

As the confrontation grew the members from both sides started throwing budget books to each other. Someone threw book on Shehbaz Sharif that hot the dice not the opposition leader.

A couple of security staff also sustained injuries during exchange of hurling books. PTI MNA Malika Bokhari also got wounded when a book hit her face.

لڑائ علی گوہر بلوچ کے ان نعروں سے شروع ہوئ، نون لیگ کے MNAs نے تمام پارلیمانی اقدار کو بالائےپشت ڈال کر ننگی گالیاں دیں اس پر نوجوان MNA جذباتی ہو گئے اور پھر بجٹ کی کتابیں پھینکنے کا سلسلہ شروع ہو گیا۔ pic.twitter.com/VSrRFkROQj

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) June 15, 2021

Today the whole nation saw on their TV screens how the ruling party resorted to hooliganism & even naked abuse. Only goes to show how ethically shallow IK and his whole party are and how PTI has turned into a fascist and abusive party. Unfortunate!

— Shehbaz Sharif (القدس في العيون) (@CMShehbaz) June 15, 2021