20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The opposition has decided to requisition a session of the Senate soon after Eidul Azha to discuss the situation in Balochistan, a source told Dawn here on Wednesday.

The source said at present signatures of the opposition members, belonging to the Democratic Alliance and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, were being obtained on the requisition notice and it would be submitted to the Senate secretariat soon after Eid.

The source said the opposition members had planned to requisition the Senate session exclusively on the issues of law and order situation in Balochistan and provincial autonomy and did not want to raise any other matter on the floor of the house.

After submission of the requisition notice, the Senate chairman is bound to convene the session within 14 days of the receipt of the notice under Article 54(3) of the constitution. Under the rules, only the chairman, and not the president, has the power to prorogue the requisitioned session.

Under the rules, the opposition is required to have signatures of 25 members on the notice. The Democratic Alliance, comprising the members of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and nationalist parties, has 22 members in the Senate and it requires the support of only three MMA members for requisitioning the session.

Talking to Dawn, opposition leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani confirmed that the opposition had decided to requisition the session, saying the decision had been taken after giving enough time to the government to call the session on its own.

Mr Rabbani said that he had asked the government to convene the joint session of the parliament on Balochistan in his first press conference after becoming the opposition leader on January 13. After waiting for almost one week, he said, the opposition had now decided to requisition the session to discuss "grim and volatile situation" in Balochistan.

Mr Rabbani said that he had already spoken to the members of the component parties of the Democratic Alliance and the MMA and they all had agreed to requisition the session considering it a national responsibility as the Senate was representative of the federating units.

Moreover, he said, an urgent session was all the more important as the parliamentary committee on Balochsitan had become ineffective due to the withdrawal of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) from it.

"The feelings of deprivation in the province were accentuated recently by feelings of helplessness and voice less ness due to the unfortunate incident of gang rape of a lady doctor and the rulers' deafening silence over it until the booming rockets forced them to heed the cries of protesters," he added.