20 July 2004	Tuesday	02 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

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ISLAMABAD, July 19: The opposition in the National Assembly on Monday registered a strong protest against placing of ban on the entry of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal president and parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed in Bajaur Agency and described it as an extra-constitutional action.

The opposition said the right to expression and movement was available to every citizen in the country and the ban on MMA leader's entry was illegal as well as unconstitutional.

Speaking on a point of order, Qazi Hussain Ahmed raised this question: "Is a political agent of a certain tribal agency so powerful to put a ban on any member of this elected house without assigning precise reasons and whether he can restrict political activities in an area from where seven persons had been elected National Assembly members on electoral symbol 'book', representing the MMA as a political force?"

He said that through a privilege motion moved in the lower house, he would like to raise the question whether the steps of banning national politicians from entering tribal areas could help restore peace and tranquillity in those areas.

PPP Parliamentarian's Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan criticized the ban on entry of Qazi Hussain Ahmed and said he had full right to move anywhere in the country he liked. He regretted that Fauzia Habib of his party had also a complaint against the administration of Rawalpindi for not allowing her to move in the area according to her will.

He referred to a Supreme Court case of the late Maulana Maududi in which the court had held that any citizen could move both inside and outside the country according to his free will.

MMA's deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that it was regrettable that while on the one hand the government claimed it wanted a political solution of tribal areas but on the other it had banned entry of MMA leaders who wielded decisive political influence in those areas and had the ability to bring harmony there.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), while rejecting the ban on Qazi's entry in Bajaur Agency, blasted the economic sanctions slapped on the "innocent people of Wana in South Waziristan".

Earlier, Dr Farid Paracha of MMA (from Lahore) pointed out that two major incidents had occurred in one day: one that of narrow escape of Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani in a murder attack and the other of banning Qazi from entering Bajaur agency. He said both events needed to be debated on adjournment, privilege and call-attention notices that had been moved.