11th NA session: Opposition likely to turn up heat on government

Load-shedding, peace talks, civil-military ties, rigging and PM’s foreign tours will be on agenda in the session.

ISLAMABAD:

With the summer session of the National Assembly scheduled to begin at a time when prolonged power cuts, compounded by the blistering heat, have made life unbearable for the common man, the opposition will be waiting for the opportunity to lambast the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) over its failure to live up to its election promises.

Load-shedding, however, will not be the only tough question the government will be confronting.

Possibility of failure in talks with the Taliban, unease in civil-military relations, rigging in May 2013 general elections, the prime minister’s foreign trips and his absence from NA proceedings are all going to be on the opposition agenda for the upcoming session.



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who will return to Pakistan from the UK today (Monday) evening, will not be able to attend the first sitting of the summer session, according to sources. And his absence is bound to raise more hackles.

On the other hand, the government does not seem to have much to keep the opposition engaged, as suggested by the agenda for the first sitting of the 11th session of the lower house.

The law minister will present the Federal Judicial Academy (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 (No. V of 2014) as required by clause (2) of Article 89 of the Constitution, and a group of PML-N members will invite the attention of the commerce minister to the sale of imported edible items which contain haram ingredients.

Talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokeswoman Dr Shireen Mazari said the party “will take up the issue of rigging in the May 2013 elections.”

PTI is also likely to introduce a resolution seeking details about the funding of media outlets, sources said.

When asked on the matter, Dr Mazari said Geo TV – which PTI chief Imran Khan has accused of playing a role in rigging the 2013 general elections – launched several programmes using foreign funding. On Friday, Imran announced that his party would boycott Geo TV and demanded a probe into certain media outlets’ use of foreign funding.

Dr Mazari said PTI will also highlight the issue of power outages. “The government keeps increasing power tariffs on one hand and outages on the other,” she said.

The PTI spokeswoman added that her party will have the support of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement on the matter since the two had already passed a resolution against the government over prolonged load-shedding in the Sindh Assembly.

Talking about progress in peace talks, she said the PTI will ask the government to update the house on the matter.

Dr Mazari said her party will also quiz the government about Prime Minister Nawaz’s foreign tours. “While Premier Nawaz’s brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, always accompanies him on tours, the representatives of other provinces are ignored,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2014.