News
Friday, April 15, 2011
PML-N blasts government, stages walkout from NA
* PML-N starts giving government tough time in National Assembly over
drone attacks, Raymond Davis case and increase in petroleum pricesBy Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The main opposition party in the National Assembly, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has started flexing its muscles to give the government tough time for its failure to come up with a clear stance on several issues, including the drone attacks, CIA operative Davis’ release and recent hike in prices of petroleum products.
The first session of the Lower House of the fourth parliamentary year, which was running smoothly a few days back, turned noisy on Thursday when legislators belonging to the PML-N created a flimsy rumpus in the House by raising slogans against the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for not giving proper attention to the issues which are being debated in the ongoing NA session.
After creating uproar in the House, PML-N lawmakers boycotted the proceedings and staged a walkout.
The protest of the PML-N was quite intense in the start. Even Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had to enter the House amidst thundering slogans. Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had, in his speech during the debate on the presidential address in the NA on last Monday, asked the government to adopt a firm stand on the issues of drone attacks and Raymond Davis.
The protest and walkout was led by MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq after Nisar left the House in the mid of the protest and didn’t turn up again.
Before staging the walkout, Saad Rafiq, on a point of order, said that drone attacks in the country’s tribal belt were a direct assault on national dignity and honour but the government was not ready to tell the House that “why these attack were not stopped yet”.
He proposed that all the political parties should formulate a national policy by rising above their party affiliations against drone strikes. He was of the view that American Predator airstrikes were counter-productive.
Earlier, PPP-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, taking part in the debate, said that merely speeches would not put an end to drone attacks. “A national policy with an input from all the political stakeholders needed to be devised to tackle the issue,” he added.
Sherpao rejected the government’s demand for getting drone technology from the US, and questioned whether the government wanted to kill its own people through drones.
A political initiative was required to deal with extremism and terrorism in the Tribal Areas, he said and called for an early implementation of the Political Parties Act in FATA which, he said, had been pending with the government for over two and a half years.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk