Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday apologised to members of the opposition over “derogatory remarks” after the PPP and PML-N staged a brief walkout from a National Assembly session in protest.
As NA Speaker Asad Qaiser chaired the session, the information minister criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party governments as he explained his tweet in which he alleged that former opposition leader Khursheed Shah appointed "800 people in Radio Pakistan in just three days".
"These people [PPP and PML-N] have looted Pakistan and recruited their favourites in Pakistan Steel Mill, Pakistan International Airlines and Radio Pakistan," Chauhdry said.
They, however, returned to the session after the minister agreed to apologise for calling members of the opposition "robbers and thieves".
The row stemmed when PPP’s Dr Nafeesa Shah submitted a privilege motion in the lower house of the parliament against the information minister for levelling serious allegation against Khursheed Shah accusing him of appointing 800 blue-eyed persons at the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation in three hours.
She also read out the tweet shared by the information minister stating, “PPP destroyed all institutions including PBC [Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation] by filling its own cronies, in three days Khursheed Shah filled 800 people only in Radio! costing 7 crore Rs additional burden, Govt is drowning 5 B Rs every year only on Radio thanks to PPP visionless policy”.