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| 05 April 2004 | Monday | 14 Safar 1425 |
Opposition vows to give tough time to govt on NSC
ISLAMABAD April 4: Opposition groups, including the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, are all set to give a tough time to treasury benches during the debate on the proposed National Security Council (NSC) Act
when the National Assembly resumes its proceedings on Monday afternoon, opposition sources said.
The situation will, however, be interesting as all top MMA leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rahman will not be present in the house, holding their first mass contact rally in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, with the stage all set for the passing of the NSC bill, the two alliances geared up for laying claim to the office of leader of the opposition in both the houses of parliament.
When asked if the leader of the opposition from ARD would be willing to sit in the NSC as one of its members after an official approval, Senator Farhatullah Babar, spokesman of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto said: "We will participate in the exercise after the passing of the bill".
He, however, added: "Whenever a true democratic dispensation came into power, the NSC will be dissolved and the act passed by the house will be repealed".
The two alliances appeared to be poles apart on the modus operandi they would adopt during the debate as they have not contacted each others after their combined walkout and joint news conference on Friday.
On Friday, a clear division was visible within the ARD ranks when two of its stalwarts spoke against the introduction of the bill while the remaining members staged a walkout, which was later joined in by the MMA.
Farhatullah Babar told this correspondent that no contact had been established with the religious alliance after the Friday's walkout. Another source said the ARD leaders had asked the MMA leadership to tender an unqualified apology for siding with the government during the passing of the 17th Amendment and also to give in writing assurance that it would not ditch it if both joined hands against the NSC.
Mr Babar said: "We will take part in the debate on NSC with our full force and fire and will give the government a very tough time in passing of the said bill". He said whenever a situation arose, the opposition parties would stage a walkout but this has yet to be formally decided.
Mr Babar said: "We will get together when party chairman Amin Fahim returns from Larkana on Monday and chalk out our strategy of resisting the government's tabled bill." No MMA leader was available in the capital as all of them have left for Hyderabad.
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