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| December 23, 2005 | Friday | Ziqa’ad 20, 1426 |
Senate session: fireworks likely over dam and draw
ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The raging controversy over the proposed Kalabagh dam and a key draw of lots that can radically change the shape of the Senate loom large as the upper house begins a short winter session on Friday. Fireworks are also expected over a new wave of violence in Balochistan province marked by a government crackdown after a string of rocket attacks, including one during a visit there by President Pervez Musharraf.
Parliamentary sources said issues related to the devastating earthquake, particularly a row between the government and opposition parties over a parliamentary committee to oversee relief and reconstruction, increases in railways fares and gas rates and high petroleum prices are also likely to come up during the session, which is likely to conclude on January 2.
Opposition parties are likely to raise the hottest issue of Kalabagh dam immediately after the sessions begins at 3pm after a month’s recess, opposition sources said. They said an adjournment motion signed by nine Senators — including opposition leader Raza Rabbani and representatives of all opposition parties — had been submitted to the Senate secretariat seeking an immediate debate on what it called an “extremely” important national issue.
They have made reported remarks by the president that the dam would be built whether the provinces and political parties agreed or not as the ground for the debate, which is likely to reflect heightened tensions between the government and opposition on the one hand and differences within the ruling coalition on the other.
It will be noteworthy to see whether ruling coalition senators from the smaller provinces of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan will go along with the government point of view in support of the dam or join voices with opposition parties in line with resolutions passed in the past by their three provincial assemblies against the project.
Fiery wordy duels are likely over the five-day-old crackdown launched by security forces in Balochistan in retaliation against a December 14 rocketing in Kohlu when the president was there to address a gathering of Marri tribe and a machine-gun fire on a helicopter next day that wounded the inspector-general of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force and his deputy.
Tensions have reportedly risen also in the nearby Dera Bugti area as a result of movement of paramilitary forces there in what former provincial governor Nawab Akbar Bugti calls a violation of a peace deal made with him early this year.
GAME OF CHANCE: Although no formal debate is expected on the January 2 drawing of lots to decide which 50 members of the 100- seat Senate will retire on completing three years in office while the rest will complete their six-year tenure, the issue is certain to weigh heavily equally on the minds of Senators of both ruling and opposition parties.
Parliamentary sources said the draw, which puts the fate of all but two Senators on the mercy of chance, and subsequent election of 50 Senators can change the political complexion of the upper house where the present ruling coalition majority of about 10 seats can vanish if the opposition wins five more seats.
But they said opposition parties, particularly the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, will be more at risk because of defections of several of their provincial assembly members in the Punjab and Sindh due to a consistent government policy to hit the two mainstream parties.
The sources said an apparent mutual fear about the future shape of the Senate had motivated some circles in both the government and opposition to consider the possibility of bringing a constitutional amendment that could allow all present senators to remain in office for six years. But no formal move has been made as yet.
The present position is that each provincial assembly will elect 11 Senators to fill as many vacancies from its respective province, the National Assembly will elect two senators for as vacancies in the Federal Capital and 12 National Assembly members from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will elect four new senators for Fata.
Under the constitution, one senator elected on the only reserved seat for technocrats in Islamabad — who in the present case in leader of house Wasim Sajjad — will automatically retire at the expiration of first three years while the one elected on the woman’s seat will retire after the expiration of the next three years.
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