KARACHI, 4 December 2003 — The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) parliamentary party leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the opposition would requisition a National Assembly session in the second week of this month.
Addressing a news conference, the PML-N leader said the opposition was working out the agenda for the National Assembly session.
He said the opposition would take up the issue of a large increase in prices of utilities and suggest that prices should not be increased without the Parliament’s consent.
On reports of a possible deal between the Mutthahida Majlis-e-Amal and the government over the Legal Framework Order (LFO) issue, Khan made it clear that his party would not support any settlement, which accepted the LFO as part of the Constitution.
He said the entire opposition would remain united in its opposition to the LFO, and expressed the hope that the MMA won’t make a secret deal with the government.
Khan also criticized the recent increase in fuel prices, saying it was wrong to review prices after every 14 days. On the recent peace overtures between India and Pakistan, Nisar said Pakistan should not try to make peace with India at the expense of national pride.
He also criticized the recent comments by President Pervez Musharraf on the settlement of the Kashmir issue.
“Such comments will disgrace the nation,” he added.
He said PML-N Acting President Javed Hashmi was being treated like a “prisoner of war.” He said the government had not implemented court orders about Hashmi properly. PML-N Information Secretary Sadiq-ul-Farooq said the economy was in a mess because of the government’s bad polices.
However, the opposition parties are not certain whether they would attend the Senate session called by Musharraf tomorrow.
Although the MMA had decided to participate in National Assembly proceedings, except legislation, the religious alliance has yet to chalk out a strategy for the Senate.
“The MMA parliamentary party in the Senate will take an independent decision on attending the proceedings of the upper house of Parliament,” MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said yesterday. MMA Senator Professor Ghafoor Ahmed said the alliance would hold a meeting before the session tomorrow.
Another group of opposition parties, the Association for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), is also not sure about its participation in the Senate.
“We have not taken a decision on attending Parliament’s proceedings,” one of its leaders, Senator Farhatullah Babar said.
However, Babar said the ARD was likely to continue boycotting the Senate proceedings “for some days”, suggesting that the alliance might attend the house proceedings as part of a joint strategy with the MMA.
Though opposition lawmakers continued their boycott of Senate and NA proceedings, they have regularly appeared in the two houses of Parliament, before walking out of the houses.
The ARD is expected to stage a strong protest in the Senate against the arrest of Javed Hashmi on charges of treason.
