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Opposition to put up united front for debate on US ties
 [Dawn] In a significant development, major opposition parties announced on Saturday that they would adopt a 'unified stance' at the joint sitting of parliament which is deliberating on new terms of engagement with the United States.They asked the government to finalise through 'consensus' fresh guidelines for Pakistain's relationship with the US and warned it against using parliament only to "endorse its premeditated actions". The decision to adopt a unified stand was taken by leaders of the opposition parties during a meeting at the residence of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI-F) chief  Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... . It came two days before the opening of a debate on the 16-point recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) on Pakistain-US relations. The recommendations focus on resumption of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistain. The meeting was attended by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the Pakistain Mohammedan League-N, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, chief of his own faction of the Pakistain People's Party, and a number of key members of the JUI-F and PML (Likeminded). The much-awaited report of the all-party PCNS, presented by its chairman Senator Raza Rabbani during a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate on March 20, called upon the United States to "review its footprint" in Pakistain. It included calls for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan to pay charges for the transit of their supplies via Pakistain, an "unconditional" US apology for a deadly attack on Pak border posts in November and a halt to drone attacks in the country's tribal areas. The presentation of the report set off speculations about whether the recommendations could be adopted unanimously as had happened on some domestic issues in the past. Talking to news hounds after the meeting, Chaudhry Nisar said all opposition parties had decided to adopt a unified stance at the joint sitting of parliament and a strategy would be thrashed out at another meeting before start of Monday's session. "We will go to the session with an open mind, but will not allow the government or any of its officials to hijack (parliament)," he said, adding that the opposition was ready to cooperate with the government in "the larger national interest" if it wanted to seek guidance from parliament "in the real sense". Soon after presentation of the PCNS report in parliament, opposition parties criticised it and warned that they would not allow the government to get it approved in the same form. Chaudhry Nisar went to the extent of describing the report as a 'weak' document, although it carried the signatures of his own party representatives -- Ishaq Dar and Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan -- and members of other opposition parties. In what appeared to be a face-saving move, the opposition members have now started using the term "working paper" for PCNS proposals. Asked why opposition members, including Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Aftab Sherpao, had put their signatures on the PCNS report if they had any reservations, Chaudhry Nisar said parliamentary committees could not be a substitute for parliament itself. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-26 |
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