November 8, 2003	Saturday	Ramazan 12, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Some members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians have expressed their resentment over the decision of the ARD leadership to resign from the National Assembly standing committees, sources told Dawn here on Friday.

The sources said the members who were unhappy with the ARD decision raised the matter at the parliamentary party meeting of the ARD, held before the National Assembly session on Friday morning.

Raja Pervez Ashraf, who presided over the meeting in the absence of Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, had to face a strong criticism from the unhappy members who also resented the fact that they were not taken into confidence before taking the final decision.

Syed Naveed Qamar, who signed the resignation submitted to the speaker, initiated the debate on the issue and opposed the decision. He was of the opinion that the opposition could play a better role and give a tough time to the government by participating in the meeting of the committees and in the elections of the chairmen.

He said the opposition should have talked to the speaker about the under representation of the opposition members in these committees. The sources said Syed Khursheed Shah also supported Mr Qamar’s point of view.

The sources said Naheed Khan, however, lashed out at Naveed Qamar for opposing the alliance decision. She asked the members to accept the party decision and maintain discipline.

Raja Pervez Ashraf closed the matter by stating that the resignation had already been submitted to the speaker and, therefore, it could not be reversed.

The sources said MNA Fozia Wahab also faced criticism from the alliance leadership for issuing a statement in the press regarding the mutiny case filed against ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. However, she said she was misreported and clarified her stand through a news conference on Thursday.