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ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Opposition parties plan to raise the recent incidents of violence in Balochistan when the Senate meets on February 2.
A notification issued by the Senate secretariat on Tuesday said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had summoned the upper house to meet on Feb 2 at 6pm to begin its first session of the new year.
The presidential order seemed to invalidate opposition plans to requisition a Senate session particularly to discuss the situation in Balochistan following a spate of acts of violence and an alleged gang-rape of a lady doctor of a hospital at the Sui gas field.
Opposition sources said a requisition notice had been signed by at least 20 senators and was awaiting five more signatures to complete the legal requirement for calling such a session before being submitted to the Senate secretariat by Friday. But the president's order under clause (1) of article 54 of the constitution, which empowers him to summon the National Assembly and the Senate or convene a joint sitting, came three days earlier.
An opposition source said the opposition would raise the Balochistan issue on the first day of the session, which will also mark the inauguration of Democratic Alliance and PPP parliamentary group leader Raza Rabbani as the leader of opposition in the house.
"Straightaway, the attack (on the government) will be on the Balochistan issue," PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said about the opposition plans for the Senate session.
He said the opposition parties had already given notices of a number of adjournment motions and call-attention notices and resolutions to discuss important matters but Balochistan would be their first priority.
Parliamentary sources said the opposition was also likely to renew its protests against President Musharraf's decision to continue as army chief until 2007 as empowered by The President to Hold Another Office Act passed by both houses of parliament late last year.
The sources said the opposition would also agitate about other issues, including violence in the Northern Areas after the murder of a religious leader by unknown gunmen, increase in petroleum prices, inflation fears, planned import of 250,000 tons of raw sugar to the perceived disadvantage of sugarcane growers, an unexplained murder of a Kazakh diplomat in Islamabad last week and restrictions imposed on private transport in the capital on Jan 21 while Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz offered Eidul Azha prayers at Faisal mosque.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said the opposition would also press a resolution demanding a review of Hudood ordinance.
LAPSED BILLS: Although, there was no immediate information about the government plans to bring new legislation before the new session, treasury benches are likely to come under fire for an embarrassing lapse of two bills not approved by the upper house in time after being passed by the National Assembly last year.
Minister of State for Law, Justice and Human Rights Chaudhry Shahid Akram Bhinder informed the Senate Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on Tuesday that technically both the Contempt of Court Bill and the Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill of 2004 had lapsed and the government 'intends to bring new legislation' in their place, a Senate secretariat press release said.
It quoted the minister as assuring the committee that the input of senators in the form of proposed amendments to the two bills would be given due weight in the new drafts. But it was not immediately known whether the government would initiate the new bills again in the National Assembly which had already passed them or before the Senate, which could not pass them within the required period of 90 days after being transmitted by the lower house.
