Row in NA as govt puts off debate on its own resolution
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, April 27: The government on Friday broke word after word given to the National Assembly for debates relating to the country’s prevailing judicial crisis, leading to a virtual impasse and protests by opposition members, one of whom even refused this month’s salary on what she called a question of conscience. Not only a promised debate on a related resolution moved by the government itself was put off for the second day running, the issue was struck off the house agenda for the day without an explanation.
Another promise by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to take up, on Friday, seven opposition adjournment motions tabled on Thursday seeking a debate on punitive notices issued to some private television channels by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority about their reporting of the judicial crisis was also not kept.
Opposition members protested against the dilly-dallying over both issues and repeatedly appealed to the chair to set new dates for debates, only to be simply ignored before the house was adjourned for a two-day weekend recess until 5pm on Monday.
When Speaker Hussain was not present in the house, an apparently exasperated member of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Ms Sherry Rehman, read out a letter she said she had sent him to protest and tell him that she would return her salary for the month for which she did not feel entitled after "having my lips sealed at this most critical juncture".
"My conscience does not allow me... (to receive the salary) because we have not been able to discuss this crisis," she said before she and PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf, who also accused the government of running away from the debate, together went to the dais to plead with the chairperson at the time, Noor Jehan Panezai of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, but without any success.
There was no official explanation why the government was avoiding the promised debate on the resolution that Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar had moved on Wednesday to condemn opposition parties for allegedly trying to malign and divide the judiciary and to politicise the situation created by the presidential charge-sheeting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on a disputed charge of misconduct and his suspension.
But speculation was rife in the parliament house about possible differences within the ruling coalition about supporting the government’s cause in the face of a nationwide outrage of the legal community in general and most political parties and a likely desire to prevent the opposition from using the parliamentary platform to say things that could embarrass President Pervez Musharraf while he is on a foreign visit.
Law Minister Wasi Zafar dismissed the opposition complaints as an attempt to “make an issue of a non-issue” and cause a chaos in the country but gave no hint when his resolution, which was put on the agenda of the house on Thursday but was removed on Friday, would be listed again.
However, he said the opposition had tried to complicate the matter by demanding that all its members be allowed to speak on his resolution and proposing an amendment, authored by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Liaquat Baloch, seeking to condemn the presidential action instead and demanding a withdrawal of the reference against the chief justice.
Pakistan Muslim League-N member Khwaja Mohammad Asif wondered why the opposition was being prevented from a debate while, according to him, President Musharraf had recently briefed senior journalists about all charges he has against the chief justice and allowed them to use the information in their writings without attributing it to him.
WHEAT EXPORT: The government told the National Assembly it could consider exporting wheat this year because of an expected record production from the current crop now being harvested.
Food and Agriculture Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan made the statement in response to a call-attention notice from three ruling party members who complained about the role of middlemen in what one of them called a defective mechanism for the procurement of wheat by government agencies.
The minister assured the house that the government would ensure payment of its fixed minimum procurement price of Rs425 per 40kg for "every grain offered for sale", and said the private sector was even offering a higher price for a better cleaned produce.He said while procurement by the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation and the government of Punjab was in progress, "we will consider even exporting wheat if enough stocks arrive by next week".
But he gave no estimates of the possible surplus that could be offered for export.
The government estimates the new wheat crop at more than 23 million tons, compared to a target of 22.5 million tons and last year’s production of 21.7 million tons, crediting the increase to improved supplies of fertilisers and better availability of irrigation water due to timely rains.
The country’s annual consumption of wheat is estimated at about 22.5 million tons.
