ISLAMABAD    -   The treasury and the opposition on Friday traded barbs in the Sen­ate over issues of acquittal of rul­ing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz in a corruption reference and the audio leak featuring conversation of Paki­stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Im­ran Khan about controversial cipher.

The opposition PTI first spoke in the house on Islamabad High Court’s deci­sion to acquit Maryam and her spouse Mohammad Safdar in a corruption ref­erence, and said that it was crystal clear “how they (ruling party) play with the country’s Constitution, law and democ­racy.” In a tit for tat response, the rul­ing PML-N chided the opposition party for a recent leaked audio, saying that it was former prime minister Imran Khan who “played with” the controver­sial diplomatic cable at the cost of the reputation of the country.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Dr Shahzad Waseem, speak­ing on a point of order claimed that things had reached to such a level that they have exposed the face of the Constitution, the law, the Par­liament and the democracy. The op­position leader said that the masses have been made irrelevant from the present democratic set-up. He con­tinued that the bills were being bull­dozed in the house without allowing the opposition to speak on them.

PTI Senator Shahzad continued that the biggest gimmick was played with the nation when the present government gave itself NRO-II while getting the NAB (National Account­ability Bureau) amendment law passed according to its own choice. “As a consequence of it, corruption is being pardoned, and it is like a free for all environment in the country.”

He said that the audio leaks had proved the business interests of PML-N were dearer to them than the masses, and they were ready to use the Prime Minister’s House even if they have ei­ther to import the machinery from In­dia for their own factory or a grid sta­tion is to be set up for their housing society. Ishaq Dar will represent the government and regulate government business in the Upper House.

In this respect, a notification was is­sued on Friday.