Military offensive: Govt’s resolution aimed at delaying elections, says PML-N

Opposition leader Nisar says party will not support pro-operation resolution.

ISLAMABAD:

The main opposition party continued on Wednesday to resist the government’s plan of seeking parliamentary approval to launch anti-militant operations, claiming the move was aimed at postponing the upcoming general elections.

“The government wants to postpone the next elections under the guise of a military operation in North Waziristan,” said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

On Tuesday, the government had intended to move a resolution regarding, apparently, an offensive in North Waziristan following an attack on child activist Malala Yousafzai. However, the resolution, which was rejected outright by the opposition, was neither tabled in the National Assembly nor shared with the media by the government.

Launching a military operation in North Waziristan without “doing any homework” will make the country more insecure, Nisar said, while addressing media at the Parliament House on Wednesday.

The leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly said his party would not support any resolution calling for a military operation wherever it was needed. He added that they had asked the government to define its policy, explaining whom it wanted to launch an operation against in the first place.

Nisar also said there were several factions/groups amongst the Taliban who had sealed pacts with the army as well as with India.

The opposition leader said that in democratic countries, public representatives are taken into confidence on such sensitive issues. Elaborating on this remark, he said that no Pakistani was involved in the 9/11 attacks, yet the government has been fighting somebody else’s war since the last 11 years.

Furthermore, while condemning the shooting of 14-year-old Malala by the Taliban, Nisar criticised the government for failing to take action after the attack.

He also censured the government for the non-implementation of unanimous resolutions passed by parliament, saying that resolutions such as the one against drone attacks had not yielded any results.

Responding to a question regarding the 22nd Constitutional Amendment, also known as dual nationality bill, Nisar made it clear that his party would not support the controversial bill. The bill is currently under discussion in the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2012.