Opposition senators’ terms for attending donors’ conference
By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Opposition leaders in the Senate are reported to have decided not to attend the International Donors’ Conference to be held in Islamabad on November 19 unless certain conditions are met by the government. Sources told this correspondent that a meeting of the opposition senators was held in the chamber of opposition leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani on Wednesday to discuss the issue of the forthcoming conference for which some of them have received invitations.
The meeting was attended by Asfandyar Wali Khan of the Awami National Party, Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, Maulana Gul Nasib and Maulana Hidayatullah Shah of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Mehtab Khan Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party.
One of the participants told this correspondent that the meeting had decided to put some conditions before the government for participation in the conference.
He said the opposition would ask the government to remove the generals heading the Federal Relief Commission and the recently-established Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra).
“If the government wants our participation in the conference, it should immediately appoint civilians as heads of the relief commission and Erra,” he said.
He said the opposition would ask the government to take steps to make the two institutions accountable and answerable to parliament.
He said the opposition leaders were also concerned over reports of misuse of relief funds and the opposition had already demanded transfer of the relief fund and donated amount to a single account in the State Bank, with every citizen of the country entitled to know details of expenditures.
He said the opposition senators believed that the government had already taken major decisions and it was involving the opposition parties only to hoodwink foreign donors who were demanding parliamentary supervision of reconstruction activities in the earthquake-hit areas.
