Qamar Zaman Kaira, during his speech in the second session, said all political parties who had won seats in the elections were part of the government so why was the PPP singled out for blame.
He said in 2008 judges had been imprisoned, terrorism was at peaking, wheat was scarce and several edibles were imported. He said there had been a shortfall of 5,000 megawatt of electricity in 2008. He said the PPP government had used the rental power plants (RPP) to bridge the power shortfall as otherwise it would have been impossible to run the country. He said to meet the shortage of gas they had tried to make agreements with Iran, India and Turkey.
Kaira said several powers had been transferred to the provinces through constitutional amendments but the federal government was still being blamed for problems in those areas.
He said the federal government had made important structural changes. Criticising the long march, without naming it, Kaira said an attack on electoral politics was an attack on the state. He said the critics should enter the parliament through the proper channel if they had popular support.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2013.