ISLAMABAD, 15 April 2004 — Pakistan’s upper house of Parliament approved the creation of a National Security Council yesterday amid strong protest from the opposition that says the move will bolster army’s role in politics.
The ruling coalition members passed the bill by a simple majority in the 100-seat Senate while opposition members of Parliament were out of the chamber, having stormed out in protest over a separate issue.
The government of Prime Minister Zarafullah Khan Jamali has said the security council would have only an advisory role in politics, and would include provincial governors, members of the opposition and senior military officers.
“There will be nine civilian members on the NSC and five military men” said Wasim Sajjad, leader of the house in the Senate.
But the opposition counters that the council, to be headed by President Pervez Musharraf, will be used to run the country and override civilian leaders. The president retains total control despite elections in October 2002, that formally returned the country to civilian rule after Musharraf’s bloodless coup in 1999, political analysts, diplomats and opposition members say.
The opposition charged that Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj deliberately presented the bill during the opposition’s absence.
In the event, it took just minutes to adopt. “This is the worst incident in Pakistan’s history and the history of the Senate,” said Raza Rabbani, a Senate member from the opposition Pakistan People’s Party headed by self-exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “This bill was bulldozed in the absence of the opposition,” he said.
Raza Mohammad Raza, another opposition member of Parliament, said: “This is permanent martial law, and this country has become a military state.”
The creation of the council was approved by the lower house last week. Now the bill needs the signature of the president to make it into a law. The passage of the bill coincides with intense debate over a promise by Musharraf to step down as head of the army by the end of the year. The promise was made to end a standoff with the opposition, led by a conservative religious alliance, which had paralyzed Parliament with noisy protests and walkouts. In an interview with the BBC, excerpts of which were aired on Tuesday, Musharraf declined to commit to stepping down, saying he was upset with the opposition’s refusal to participate in a vote of confidence in him and in last week’s lower house vote on the security council.
