ISLAMABAD: The unprecedented standoff in the Senate between the joint opposition and Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan took a new turn on Tuesday when the leader of the opposition Senator Aitzaz Ahsan announced that they would hold the Senate session on Wednesday under the open sky outside the Parliament House.
Aitzaz contended that it was beyond their comprehension that on the one hand, the rulers were ‘holding on to the hand’ of the US while on the other hand, shedding tears on the killing of TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud, as if he was a great hero.
The opposition, which enjoys a clear majority in the House, persisted with its continuing boycott of the proceedings on Tuesday also amid calls by MQM’s Tahir Hussain Mashhadi that the interior minister should be approached to shun his ego and come to the Senate and withdraw the “wrong information” he shared with the House.
The Senate met with a delay of almost two hours with 26 legislators on the treasury benches, the minimum quorum requirement. The sitting lasted for about an hour and only the Question-Hour was exhausted, sparing the written questions asked by the opposition senators. PML-N’s Rafique Rajwana chaired the sitting.
“We will not let the government run away. We have prepared the agenda for tomorrow’s Senate session. We will expose the government and there will talk on price spiral of essential commodities, increased tariff of electricity, gas, hike in the prices of petroleum products,” asserted Aitaz while talking to the media persons outside the Parliament House following the adjournment of the Senate sitting.
He regretted that one person had made the entire government and parliament hostage by making it an issue of his ego. “He may not aplogise to us but he should withdraw the wrong information he shared with the Senate. The government is following a policy of double standards: first it presented figures of civilian casualties of drone strikes that supported and strengthened the US position on drones; second the interior minister is not ready to take back these figures,” he noted.
Showing a copy of the agenda, he explained that the opposition senators would debate the government’s decision to privatise 68 state entities, the latest drone attack, current political and security situation, the conduct of the interior minister and scores of other issues besides taking up some motions and resolutions.
The PPP senator said that they could hold another sitting the next day, if they could not exhaust the listed agenda on Wednesday. When he briefed the media on the opposition’s meeting decisions, it had not been decided by that time exactly where the Senate will hold its meeting. But the opposition’s parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi told The News that the sitting would be held under the open sky and in case of rain, the session would not be prorogued but adjourned.
Senators belonging to PPPP, ANP, PML-Q and BNP-Awami were present on the occasion and they would be a part of the proceedings on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in the Senate a reply given by the minister in-charge of the Aviation Division was disputed by PML-N Senator Muhammad Hamza, who was supported by Senators Talha Mehmood Talha and Muzaffar Hussain Shah regarding the delay in the departure of PIA’s PK-302 flight on July 17 this year.
Senator Hamza protested as the minister said there had been no delay in the departure of the flight. He said he was on board the plane and noted the flight departure was delayed for two hours without any apparent reason. The chair referred the matter to the House committee concerned.
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