A file photo of the Senate. PHOTO: FILE
Senate’s 100th session to begin on Monday (today) is expected to be a stormy one as the key issues – mainly those left in the 99th session – are expected to come under debate.
Opposition parties – Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) – have called meetings of their parliamentary parties on Monday to frame agenda for the new session.
Most of the agenda items of the previous session had not been taken up as the joint opposition had boycotted the proceedings after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan presented what the opposition had called ‘incorrect statistics’ of the victims of drone attacks.
The PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the party would convene its parliamentary party meeting on Monday at 2 pm to finalise agenda to be discussed during the session.
“Along with the new agenda items, most of the issues will be taken up from the previous agenda which could not be the discussed due to the boycott of joint opposition,” he added.
Babar said an adjournment motion had been included in the agenda to discuss procedure for the appointment of judges in the superior judiciary, which was also one of the leftover agenda items of the previous session.
“Besides that, a resolution pertaining to the dual nationality of the judges will also be tabled in the house by the PPP to know how many judges of the superior courts hold dual nationality,” Babar said, adding that in the past the judiciary had been reluctant to share such details with the parliament.
He said his party wanted that like bureaucrats and parliamentarians, the members of judiciary should also make public the status of their citizenships.
“Issues including blockade of Nato supply by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), drone attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), security threats and inflation will also be discussed during the session,” he said.
Awami National Party has also submitted an adjournment motion on the PTI’s move to blockade the Nato supply via K-P by seeking a thorough debate on the issues.
The Pashtun ethnic party argues that blockade of the Nato supply line is not the job of the PTI workers and it is the federal government’s prerogative to take decision on such issues of national and international importance.
“We do not object to the blockade of the supply line but to the mechanism of the PTI. How can a political party give the administrative authority to its workers to thrash drivers and check vehicles,” said the ANP senator Zahid Khan.
He said his party wanted to initiate a debate in the house as to whether any party workers could take the law in their hands by blocking an international route and what the Constitution said on the particular issue.
“We had also choked the Nato supply after the Salala attack for many months; but we had engaged the federal government to take the decision and the procedure adopted was as per the law and the Constitution,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2013.
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