Shehbaz Sharif will have to take risk and attend budget session: Ahsan Iqbal

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal has said party president Shehbaz Sharif will have to take a risk and attend the upcoming budget session.

While speaking on Geo News programme "Geo Parliament" on Sunday Iqbal said the budget session was important and Shehbaz as the opposition leader would have to take part in it.

"The opposition would give constructive suggestions on the budget," he noted.

Speaking about the Parliament session conducted during the pandemic lockdown, the PML-N leader raised questions that if the executive and the judiciary were working in the country, what was wrong with the parliament sitting.

"The attitude of not attending the parliamentary sessions due to the fear of contracting the virus, especially when the people are losing lives to this deadly disease, is not appropriate," underscored the PML-N leader, noting that the lockdown of the Parliament will send the wrong message to the people.

He also feared that the speaker or deputy speaker would not allow the opposition to speak during the virtual meeting.

In response, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Technology, who was also a guest on the show remarked that the virtual meeting was opposed by those who can't even open WhatsApp, adding that it is difficult for him to attend the meeting since the danger of catching the virus was extremely high. "May Allah protect those who are going to the meeting," he said.

"A special application could have been designed for a secure Parliament session", he said, "but the speaker did not include me or the Information Technology (IT) ministers in the committee on the virtual session."

Speaking about the picture of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif floating around the internet, Chaudhry said PM Imran had assured an investigation into the PML-N leader's medical reports.

"Whoever is accountable would suffer during the inquiry process," he remarked.