ISLAMABAD Nov 24: The combined opposition in the Senate on Thursday lodged a strong protest against what it termed “derogatory remarks” made by General Pervez Musharraf in an official function on Wednesday, belittling the opposition’s role in national politics and in the aftermath of the Oct 8 earthquake.
On a point of order, leader of the opposition Mian Raza Rabbani regretted that General Musharraf “who had earlier made a successful attempt” to thwart the government-opposition talks on LFO had again passed remarks aimed at sabotaging the participation of opposition in the parliamentary committee which, however, was foiled.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi defended whatever the president had said about the track record of opposition “whose actions do not match its rhetoric as its reservations on terms of reference of the parliamentary panel were ill-intentioned and ill-timed”.
The minister’s comments triggered an uproar prompting ruling PML secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Syed to come to the rescue by reassuring the opposition that the government was serious in taking it along in the process of providing relief to quake survivors and undertaking reconstruction.
Gen Musharraf had described the opposition’s attitude as unbecoming and its boycott of donors’ conference a manifestation of its ill-intentions to sabotage the meeting, Mr Rabbani said.
He added that the opposition came to know about Gen Musharraf’s remarks when it was about to enter the parliamentary committee meeting and despite the provocation decided to participate in it and express its reservations.
The leader of opposition said when he raised the issue in the committee meeting both Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and president of PML Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain denied that General Musharraf had said anything against the opposition.
However, he added, Thursday’s media reports exposed the “premier and PML chief’s cover-up”.
He said it was not understandable that while the prime minister and PML president were trying to woo opposition, some organs of the state were attempting to sabotage the process of reconciliation.
Mr Rabbani recalled that Nawaz Sharif had appealed to donors participating in the conference to donate generously. Benazir Bhutto had sent letters of appreciation to heads of states and Qazi Hussain Ahmed had made appeals for maximum donations both before and after the moot.
He called upon the government to think as to why Gen Musharraf’s statement had come at a time when the parliamentary committee was about to meet.
The parliamentary affairs minister said the concept that the TOR presented by the prime minister were lacking in any way was incorrect as “all aspects of the matter had been covered by the four-point TOR”.
Mr Niazi alleged that the opposition had been trying to exploit the Oct 8 tragedy and its aftermath for point-scoring and giving wrong impression about the government’s steps aimed at mitigating the suffering of survivors.
Mr Rabbani reacted sharply to this reply and demanded that Prime Minister Aziz should come to the house and explain the position himself.
Since the PM has left the country to attend the Commonwealth summit in Malta, PML secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Syed interrupted to tell the upper house that both the prime minister and PML president were keen to get the opposition on board. For this purpose, they had tried their best to ensure that all the leaders joined hands in the task of oversight.
He said both the president and prime minister had appreciated the role played by the opposition during the national disaster.
