ISLAMABAD, May 17: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has decided to approach the Commonwealth before its meeting next month in order to block Pakistan's entry into the organization.
Talking to Dawn here on Monday, PPP Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar said the PPP would move the Commonwealth to take note of the sham democracy before deciding to readmit Pakistan into its fold.
"We will approach the Commonwealth to apprise it of the sham democracy in Pakistan and emphasise upon it not to accord international legitimacy to the present regime by readmitting Pakistan to the organization," Mr Babar said.
The PPP senator said the party would take other opposition parties into confidence so that the issue could be raised from the platform of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD). He said he would discuss the matter with ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a day or two to take a final decision on it.
He said the European Union Parliament in its meeting early this month had endorsed the economic cooperation agreement with Pakistan but there was a "sting in the tail" as it also decided to watch for one year whether there was a genuine movement in the country towards democracy, supremacy of parliament and curtailing the role of military in politics.
The party, he said, would also bring to the attention of the European Union that within days of its ratification of the economic cooperation agreement, parliament in Pakistan had been rendered even more dysfunctional.
Earlier, in a statement, the PPP senator condemned the continued killing of important motions and resolutions in the chamber by the Senate chairman and vowed to take up this issue to the Commonwealth as well.
He said until now the chairman had been consistently killing motions and resolutions that sought to correct the civil-military imbalance or questioned the immunity given to generals or "pointed out their scramble for state resources." But on Monday, he said, even those resolutions and motions that seek to restore to parliament its authority were also killed in the chamber on the most flimsy grounds.
"This is appalling and a dangerous trend that bodes ill for the future of parliament. The civil society and public opinion must step in as no other forum exists to challenge the arbitrary killing of such important resolutions in the chamber," he added.
The PPP senator said the resolution seeking to assert parliamentary supremacy stated: "This House is of the view that it is the prerogative of parliament and not of the cabinet to ratify agreements entered into by the government of Pakistan with foreign governments.
