News
Friday, August 05, 2011
PPP, PML-N lock horns in National Assembly
* Both parties accuse each other on various issues
* Fazl opposes deployment of army in Karachi, says he is also opposed to army’s involvement in FATA, Balochistan
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: It was not a “business as usual” to discuss the law and order situation in Karachi in the Lower House of parliament on Thursday when a larger part of the session was spoiled by the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the largest opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) by resorting to oft-repeated accusations and counter-accusations against each other’s top leadership and reminding each other their conduct while treating the judiciary.
The session devoted fully for debating the fast deteriorating situation in Karachi by suspending the agenda and business of the day a couple of days ago focused little on violence in the mega city when the PPP and the PML-N lawmakers traded barbs on various issues, which in the words of smaller parties is the reflection of non-serious attitude towards resolving the killing spree in Karachi.
Though Karachi issue figured in the speeches of the PML-N and the PPP, these were smaller parties Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Awami National Party (ANP) which debated the issue at length, particularly JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rahman, opposing the deployment of army in Karachi, which he believed would be detrimental to the nascent democracy.
“Don’t make army a party in the Karachi issue and don’t pit it against our own people,” Fazl said while making an impassionate appeal for restoring peace to Karachi and felt that the partial use of army was as disastrous as full-fledged martial law was.
“I oppose the idea of deploying the army in Karachi,” he said, adding that he was against the involvement of army in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. He noted that if the calls for deploying the army in the city were growing louder, it was a clear sign of failure of the civil administration to handle the situation.
Fazl believed resolving the Karachi problem was not an uphill task and only required the will by all the stakeholders. He urged the government to invite all the parties for finding out the solution to insecure conditions in the metropolis.
ANP’s Bushra Gohar called for a parliamentary committee to be mandated with reviewing the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Joint Investigation Team (JIT) reports. She urged for across the board de-weaponisation in Karachi.
Acknowledging that Urdu speaking community scarified greatly for the country, she contended that the economic migration that took place to Karachi since independence should be accepted, an apparent reference to Pushto-speaking people, whose heavy influx took place over the years in Karachi in search for jobs.
She noted that all the stakeholders would have to go to a negotiated settlement of the problem and expressed distrust over what she called the “shuttle service” of Rahman Malik between Karachi and Islamabad to resolve the serious law and order breakdown in the city.
MQM’ Iqbal Ahmed Ali reiterated his party stance by pointing finger at some unspecified elements of the Sindh government for the fresh trouble in the city and demanded that the MQM’s bill for making the country weapon-free must be brought in the house.
Sajid Ahmed of the MQM blamed the PPP of fomenting the division on linguistic basis contrary to their claim of being a party of the federation.
PML-N’s lawmaker Hanif Abbasi’s hard hitting speech showered all kind of criticism on the government and even didn’t spare the judiciary by questioning its authority if it couldn’t assert it to implement decisions in various corruption cases.
In a tit-for-tat response, Punjab PPP President Imtiaz Safdar Warriach carried out the onslaught against PML-N leadership by recalling their agreement with Gen Musharraf to go in exile as well as the decision of apex judiciary about their corruption.
PML-N’s Khurram Dastagir Khan also devastated the government with the fierce criticism over its inefficiency and corrupt practices, however, suggested that a fact-finding committee of the House should be constituted as why the police could not act in trouble-hit areas of the city.
He also called for calling the heads of security agencies to brief the House about the people behind the Karachi violence, a demand that was raised by his party colleague Ahsan Iqbal in the previous session.
Ahsan Iqbal also talked about load shedding in Ramazan in the country and announced to lodge a token walkout against it when Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi adjourned the session for today (Friday).
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk