HYDERABAD, Nov 28: The Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has said the parliamentary committee constituted by the prime minister for monitoring the post-earthquake relief and rehabilitation work should be made subservient to parliament.
In this regard, he said, the joint opposition had submitted proposals on terms of reference (ToRs) of the parliamentary committee.
Speaking at a news conference after presiding over a meeting of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Sindh chapter, at a madressah here on Sunday, he said government’s reply was expected in a few days and added that the opposition’s proposals could not technically be rejected by the government.
Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahyoon and other Sindh JUI-F leaders were also present.
The Maulana said the joint opposition would not be a part of the parliamentary committee till a consensus was reached on its terms of reference.
He claimed that the scope of the parliamentary committee’s objectives was so limited that it would not be able to effectively supervise the post-quake relief and rehabilitation work in the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He added that it was up to the government to accept opposition’s proposals if it was interested in making the committee effective.
He dismissed president’s remarks that the opposition had tried to sabotage the Nov 19 donors’ conference in Islamabad.
He said had the opposition not been interested in the rehabilitation and relief work it would have refused to attend the prime minister’s meeting.
He said that actually democracy had become a common subject of the world and President Gen Pervez Musharraf after derailing the democratic process wanted to put parliament in the background and this fact had been brought into the notice of the world community by the opposition.
