Ratcheting up pressure: Senate opposition to hold session on the street

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan insists the interior minister should withdraw the ‘wrong’ figures he placed before the house.

ISLAMABAD:

Opposition members in the Senate on Tuesday agreed to take their bitter confrontation with the government to a place where everybody can see them. On Wednesday, the opposition senators plan to hold a session on the road outside the house.

The decision – on the fourth day of their boycott of the house proceedings – came after the interior minister showed no signs of accepting their demand of withdrawing the disputed statistics Nisar presented before the house on the number of civilian casualties in drone strikes.

“Our session will discuss the prevalent post-drone strike situation besides talking about the interior minister’s attitude,” Leader of the Opposition Senator Aitzaz Ahsan told journalists outside the parliament after Tuesday’s session.

He reiterated the opposition’s demand that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar withdraw the statistics he presented before the house last Wednesday.



“We do not want the interior minister to apologise for his attitude but he must withdraw the wrong figures he placed before the house,” said the leader of the opposition. Ahsan insisted that the minister was responsible for the authenticity of the information he provided.

He also stated that the opposition would not let the government get away scot free. “We will expose the government,” Ahsan vowed.

The senator said that while the government had condemned the drone strike that killed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud it had continued its cooperation with Washington.

Ahsan said that security situation in Karachi, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the government’s privatisation plan would be on the opposition’s agenda to debate.

No opposition, no business

Since opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) boycotted the Senate proceedings, the upper house of parliament failed to take up any business on its agenda for the session.

The government has since been struggling to complete the quorum of 26 members necessary to hold a session. In doing so, the sessions were delayed by hours. On Tuesday too, the session began almost two hours late and lasted only an hour or so.

“The house has a consensus that no legislative agenda would be taken up in the absence of the opposition,” Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bukhari had told the leader of the house Raja Zafarul Haq during a session earlier last week.

Since then, the treasury benches have been trying to woo the opposition back into the house but in vain. A four-member team constituted by the leader of the house held several meetings with the opposition leaders but failed to persuade them to end the boycott. They were not ready to accept anything less than the interior minister withdrawing the statistics.

Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also urged the interior minister to withdraw the statistics and end the standoff.

“Sincere efforts should be made to bring the opposition back to the house. I think the interior minister should come to the house and repeat the answer to those questions without tendering an apology,” said Senator Mashhadi.

The agenda for the day included calling attention over the regulation of media laws to cover terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2013.