Addressing joint session, Alvi says parties should mutually decide election date n MPs should think about using EVM in elections n Hard work needed to control rising inflation n Pakistan bearing the brunt of climate change due to other states n Appreciates coalition govt for improving ties with US
n Desires better ties with India but after Kashmir resolution n PTI completely boycotts address.
ISLAMABAD - President Dr. Arif Alvi on Thursday urged politicians to end growing ‘political polarization’ in the country and decide election date through dialogue.
“For the God sake do away with political polarization and promote unity as espoused by our founding fathers,” urged Dr. Arif Alvi while addressing the joint session of the parliament.
About the election year, the President said this is the election year but a decision regarding the election date has to be decided by the political parties through dialogue.
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“I feel that politicians should mutually resolve the election date issue with dialogue,” he said, adding that there was a need to conduct free, fair elections in the country. He was of the view that the lawmakers should also think about Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). It may be noted here that the present government has undone the bill regarding Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), which was passed by the PTI’s government.
The lawmakers from treasury benches showed disinterest in the presidential address as not more than twenty members remained present in the house during the speech.
Minister for Defence Khwaja Muhammad Asif and opposition leader Raja Riaz, in a protest during the speech of the President, said the President had taken no time to dissolve this assembly. There should be some shame on this act of quickly dissolving the assembly [National Assembly], they said, without getting the floor.
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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf [PTI] completely boycotted the presidential address as not even a single Senator from PTI attended the proceedings. Only some PTI’s dissidents including opposition leader Raja Riaz attended the proceedings. Other PTI’s 131 MNAs had already tendered en-masse resignations.With the onset of the proceedings, some lawmakers including Mushtaq Ahmed, Akbar Chitrali, Haji Hadayat Ullah, Tahir Bizenjo started raising slogans for issuing production order of MNA Ali Wazir. These lawmakers also gathered around the Speaker’s podium raising slogans ‘Issue production order to Ali Wazir’.
About the economic situation of the country, the President asked the government for maintenance of balance. He stressed the need for hard work to control growing inflation in the country.
“Pakistan should stand on its feet. We need hard work. We don’t have oil reserves, but we have land and gold,” he said, adding that the country has reached a growth of up to 5.9pc which shows capacity to grow.
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About the catastrophic flood and its devastation, he said the natural calamity has wreaked havoc across the country and rendered millions homeless. “I want to felicitate the Pakistan Army for helping victims while sacrificing their lives. The federal and provincial governments, PDMA, and NDMA all worked hard on the ground. I thank all of them,” he said adding that the timely relief work has minimized the human and economic losses from the floods.
He said that Pakistan’s contribution to global warming was not even one per cent, but the country was suffering the most. He lauded relevant agencies and the government for the way they worked. The disastrous floods had damaged crops spread over acres and underscored the need for crop insurance.
“Agriculture is our economic backbone. We must look towards the countries that are progressing in this sector,” he said, mentioning that the Netherlands is 19 times smaller than Pakistan but it progressed so much on the agricultural front.
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Dr Alvi also said that the recent floods had once again raised the demand for building dams and crops insurance.
About the country’s ties with US, the president appreciated the Shehbaz Sharif government for improving ties with the United States, saying that the country had been a “good friend” to Pakistan. “We have seen ups and downs but the US is a big market for our goods. We want to improve ties on mutual understanding. The government is striving for it and I commend this,” he said.
About Afghanistan, he said Pakistan has a clear position about the neighbouring country that we want peace there. He said, “Taliban have promised that their soil will not be used against terrorism and we expect everyone to keep their word.”
About India, he said that Pakistan desired better ties with India but only after a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. “We believe Hindutva mindset and Islamophobia are being exported and I want India to not do this because it has an impact.”
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“Every chamber I speak to demand continuation in policies. Even if the governments change, policies should continue,” Alvi added. About education sector, he warned against neglecting the youth as he called for the inclusion of children who were out of school. “Members of parliament must focus on this.” He said that more than 20 million children are out of school.
The president said that online education could be used for infusing knowledge among the youth. “There are good education institutions that can help in this initiative.” Pakistan also needed to build a mechanism to provide employment to the people, he added.
He also stressed that children needed to be prepared for the future. “Several smaller countries are ahead of Pakistan in cyber power while our policies are weak in this respect.”
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