Opposition’s protest amid President’s address taints parliamentary norms: Raisani

ISLAMABAD: Youngest Member of the National Assembly (MNA) and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP-Balochistan) Nawabzada Mir Jamal Khan Raisani on Thursday said the Opposition's protest during the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament tainted the parliamentary norms of the country that brought bad name to the country before foreign dignitaries who were attending the special session as guests. The President presented his vision on all the social issues of the country including law and order, rights of Balochistan, construction and development projects which should have been listened by the opposition, the youngest lawmaker from Balochistan said while talking to reporter outside the Parliament. Raisani praised President Asif Ali Zardari for his constructive address to the joint session of the Parliament which was a good start. He said that the President had emphasized on the equal development of all the provinces. He regretted that the Opposition had started its protest right afte r the President started his address at the joint session of the Parliament. He said, "There were diplomats and delegations from different countries in the Parliament today who did not get a good message. When a Member of Parliament comes to the House, he represents his entire constituency, but unfortunately today the members of a party have protested for the representation of one person. I am the youngest among the Parliamentarians, I came to learn something, but in such an environment, I got nothing but rebuking remarks." In response to a question, he said that five years ago, when his father (Nawab Aslam Raisani) was martyred, he preferred to join the platform of Parliament for the rights of the martyrs, youth and downtrodden of Balochistan instead of picking up the gun despite being young. "I am trying my best to be the strong voice of the poor and neglected classes of the society. The Balochistan government is working on a youth policy for the youth of Balochistan, we will give these youth all the facil ities including education, training, scholarships, employment, sports, which are available to the people of other provinces of the country," Jamal Raisani said. He said that the girls of Balochistan also had the right to participate in sports, through sports the country could further strengthen the connections and relations with the neighboring and friendly countries. He said that the issue of missing persons was very important, the missing persons should be identified and traced whereas the perpetrators of terrorism had no identity and territory, a terrorist was only a terrorist.