December 23, 2005	Friday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: Three opposition members of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence on Thursday requisitioned a committee meeting to discuss the validity of the approval given by a minority of the committee members to the government’s plan to purchase costly VVIP aircraft and Saab surveillance system.

People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar told Dawn that it was unprecedented that a minority of three members overturned a unanimous recommendation made by nine members of the committee just three days earlier.

The requisition notice has been signed by Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi of the PPP and Sardar Mahtab Abbasi of the PML-N and under the rules, the committee chairman, Nisar Memon, is bound to convene the meeting within 14 days i.e. by January 4, 2006.

In their notice, the opposition members state that “nine members participating in a requisitioned meeting on December 16 unanimously recommended cancellation of the purchase of VVIP planes and review of Saab aircraft deal. On December 20, three members of the committee in another requisitioned meeting endorsed the government’s decision to buy VVIP aircraft and Saab surveillance system from Sweden”.

“This contradiction has raised serious questions of law, constitution, rules of business and parliamentary traditions which need to be addressed urgently,” the opposition senators said in their notice.

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