Conspiracy against PPP’s 1989 government

Daily Times

Sharifs asked to apologise for ‘taking bribe’
Sharif brothers took Rs 60m from ISI to topple govt



LAHORE: Opposition members in the Punjab Assembly have demanded the provincial rulers, PML-N leadership Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, to render an apology to the nation over getting millions of rupees in ‘bribe’ from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as confirmed by Younus Habib, owner of the Mehran Bank, in the Asghar Khan case.

During the Punjab Assembly session on Friday, Leader of the Opposition in the House Raja Riaz Ahmad on a point of order raised the issue that it had been confirmed now after the statement of Younus Habib that Nawaz Sharif had taken Rs 35 million and Shahbaz Sharif, who is the Punjab chief minister nowadays, took Rs 25 million from the ISI to topple the PPP’s government in 1989.

Historically, in 1989, several politicians were bribed with millions of rupees or harassed by some state institutions under the ‘Operation Midnight Jackal’ to make successful the ‘no-confidence move’ against then premier Benazir Bhutto.

Under the operation, most parliamentarians were kept at Merriott Hotel and Balochistan House in Islamabad, and in Murree to get favourable results. They were also bribed for horse-trading and to sell their votes against Benazir’s premiership.

However, the move failed on November 1, 1989, and later, some ISI officials, especially Brig Imtiaz Billa and Major Aamir who were directly linked to the operation, were removed from service after their failure.

On Friday, though Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan snubbed the voice of the opposition leader by closing his microphone to give opportunity to the treasury members, especially Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, Tahir Khalil Sindhu, Ali Asghar Manda and Razzaq Dhillon, to interrupt him time and again, Raja Riaz continued his speech and demanded the PML-N leaders to apologise to the nation who were confident of their politics and leadership.

Raja Riaz said that PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif should come to the provincial assembly and take the House into confidence by taking oath that he was not involved in such a scandal and had not taken any money from the ISI or any other institution. He also urged the Sharifs to return the said [bribe] money of Rs 6 million to the government, as it was the money of taxpayers.

All this time, treasury members stood on their benches and continued to interrupt the leader by chanted slogans like ‘Go Zardari Go’ and thumping the desks.

On the other hand, the opposition members tried to approach the speaker to complain against turning off of Raja Riaz’s microphone, saying that it was the right of the opposition leader to speak, and his mic could not be turned off in any case when he was on a point of order. However, the speaker did not attend them and gave the floor to a parliamentary secretary, Tahir Khalil Sindhu, to read out a brief about the ‘Women Package’ announced by the chief minister the other day.

Resultantly, Raja Riaz, protesting against the speaker and the treasury member’s attitude toward the opposition and the Sharifs’ alleged act of taking bribe, announced to walk out of the House. Meanwhile, a member of the opposition, Asghar Ghoral, pointed out the quorum and the speaker adjourned the session until next Monday at 3pm. Earlier, provincial minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor and Parliamentary Secretary for Industries Rana Tajamul Hussain answered the queries about their departments.

It is worthy to mention here that due to the adjournment of the session, an open debate on the measures for the protection of women in the province could not be started.