Federal Minister for Railways Hanif Abbasi, while addressing the National Assembly, said lawmakers often sit in the house and criticize bureaucracy, despite being part of the same system for decades.

Without naming Khawaja Asif, he said lawmakers on the treasury benches should sit with the opposition if they want to criticize the system. "Don't blame the system, you have been part of it for 40 years," he reminded Asif.

Earlier, Khawaja Asif had criticized the Sialkot bureaucracy for plundering the national exchequer and accused them of poor management during the floods.

Abbasi said Pakistan’s governance structure is described as a “hybrid system” and noted that those who have been part of it for 40 years are now cursing it. He remarked that if this continues, the treasury benches might as well move to the opposition.

The minister praised the Punjab government’s performance, saying its measures were commendable and that the management of recent rains in Rawalpindi was exemplary. He added that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s foreign policy has strengthened Pakistan internationally, citing the warm welcome given to him in China and claiming it placed a much larger country on the defensive.

Abbasi also criticized the opposition, saying it lacks the ability to play its role effectively, and accused them of following the PTI founder, who according to him, ended his own governments multiple times.

He concluded by saying that politicians themselves have damaged the sanctity of Parliament.