Back in parliament: Joint opposition calls off boycott

Khursheed Shah says the protesting parties were ending their boycott since the premier had spoken to parliament

ISLAMABAD: The opposition announced an end to its boycott of the upper and lower house of parliament on Tuesday after an hours-long meeting to thrash out a future strategy against the government over the Panamagate scandal.

The opposition had started boycotting proceedings, calling upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to come to parliament and clarify his position over his family’s offshore businesses.



Even after Nawaz addressed the National Assembly on Monday, opposition lawmakers walked out for the sixth consecutive day, saying they had put forward seven questions but the prime minister’s speech engendered 70.

In a surprise move similar to Monday’s walkout, Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah announced the protesting parties were ending their boycott since the premier had spoken to parliament.

“The prime minister had said he was not answerable to parliament and that was why we forced him to come to the house,” Shah told journalists after the opposition’s meeting at the Parliament House.

“Though he [Nawaz] did not answer the questions we had asked, we are still ending the boycott [of both houses],” he said. “Why should we stay away as parliament is our forum?”



PTI’s parliamentary leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani, Awami National Party’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah also attended the meeting.



The parties welcomed the premier’s announcement of a parliamentary committee for formulating joint terms of reference for the Panama commission.

While the opposition’s meeting was under way, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq also invited the committee members to discuss the post-PM address situation.

Shah said the speaker asked him if any government aide had approached the members after the prime minister in his speech called for finding an amicable way out of the controversy.

PTI’s Qureshi said that in the next two or three days it would be clear how serious was the government about the whole issue. The PTI has demanded the resignation of the premier until investigations into the Panama leaks are completed.

Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said the prime minister’s address had raised more questions than those asked from him. “We will seek answers to these questions in parliament and if we do not get replies, the joint opposition will chalk out its future line of action,” he added.



Senate session

While the parties did not attend the NA proceedings on Tuesday, they did attend the Senate session, but remained mysteriously silent.

Aitzaz, who played a pivotal role in framing seven pointed questions for PM Nawaz, remained tight-lipped throughout the proceedings. No formal announcement to end its boycott accompanied the opposition’s attendance in the nearly four-hour long session.

Electronic crimes bill

Information Technology Minister Anusha Rehman introduced the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 (PECB) in the upper house. The bill was passed by the National Assembly a month ago.

When Aitzaz asked Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani to refer it to the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, the chairman instead sent the bill for vetting to the Standing Committee on Information Technology, directing it to invite members of the human rights committee for detailed discussions.

The lawmakers had earlier vowed not to allow the bill to pass in its current form and to hold a public hearing on it during a consultative session organised by a digital rights groups.

Annual reports of CCI

The senators also discussed the annual reports of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for 2013-14 and 2014-15, expressing disappointment over the fact that only one meeting of the CCI was held in the past 11 months.

PPP’s Sassui Palijo and Dr Babar Awan, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Usman Kakar and Sardar Azam and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Azam Swati censured the federal government for not convening a meeting of the CCI after the stipulated period of 90 days.

The opposition senators also questioned the government for not tabling the projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its related issues before the CCI.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2016.