ISLAMABAD: Under pressure from opposition parties for allegedly supporting the government on the SBP Amendment Bill, which they rejected, PPP's Yousuf Raza Gilani has resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
Yusuf Raza Gilani hit out at the government, saying he had submitted his resignation to the leadership of his party, saying he no longer wanted to be the leader of the opposition.
Criticizing the Speaker and Speaker of the Senate, Gilani said they are the guardians of the House, but not of the government, and their role should be impartial.
"It seems that the president of the Senate was facilitating the government," he said, adding that for the first time in the country's history, the president of the Senate had to cast his vote to pass the bill.
Talking about his absence from the crucial Senate session, Gilani said that his staff received the agenda for the January 28 Senate session at 11:30 am on January 27, while it was delivered at his home at 1 pm.
It was not appropriate to include the bill in the agenda late at night.
"It was such an important agenda. We should have been given more time to consider it. The House is taken into confidence on such important matters of national interest, but unfortunately it was not," he said.
The PPP senator said the bill had not been referred to the relevant standing committee, as he highlighted that bills are debated in committees – and as a result, lawmakers build consensus on a matter.
"The chairman adjourned the Senate session for [just 30 minutes]. You helped the government, not the opposition," Gilani told Senate President Sadiq Sanjrani.