August 04, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 1 429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: After a ruined honeymoon, the government is in for what could be the hardest post-election parliamentary pounding when the Senate meets on Monday for an opposition-called session.

The opposition’s majority in the 100-seat upper house will ensure a debate of its choice on a sensitive four-point agenda it seeks to discuss at the start of the fifth month of the PPP-led coalition government.

With both house Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro and Deputy Chairman Jan Mohammad Jamali belonging to the formerly ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), the opposition alliance can be sure of a comprehensive debate on issues including perceived external threats to the country, internal security and terrorism, the prevailing inflation and alleged government efforts to weaken the local government system introduced by the now isolated President Pervez Musharraf.

Leader of house Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan People’s Party, who made his mark as opposition leader before the last February’s election, is likely to have a hard time defending the new government’s dismal performance in which he had no role and which denied the ruling alliance a period of political honeymoon even after a landmark election victory following more than eight years of military-led rule.

The opposition wants Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to personally reply to the criticism in the Senate, where he has not come after taking office in late March and is represented there by Mr Rabbani.

In defending the government, the coalition-leading PPP is unlikely to get much support from the other major partner Pakistan Muslim League-N which had quit the cabinet quite early after PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari refused to meet two deadlines for the reinstatement of superior court judges sacked by President Musharraf under his controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency proclamation.

The other two smaller coalition partners — the Awami National Party and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam — may also not be very enthusiastic because of their frequently voiced complaints of not being taken into confidence in decision-making about some important matters.

It also remains uncertain if some vocal PPP senators apparently sidelined by the new party leadership after the Dec 27, 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto would spring to action in aid of the party.

There is no indication how long the Senate will remain in session, although sessions requisitioned by the previous opposition alliance that Mr Rabbani led had been very brief thanks to the predominance of the then-ruling coalition.

A government source said the present session could last two to three days although opposition leader Kamil Ali Agha said his side would like to have separate debates of two days each on all the four agenda items, which will also encompass the prime minister’s visit to the United States last week and the controversy about the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the light of abortive move last month to put the country’s premier spy agency under the interior ministry’s control and a spate of allegations of its involvement with the Taliban, which the government vehemently denies.

The requisitioned session follows a long recess after the budget sessions of both the National Assembly and the Senate in June, when the government had easily managed to keep President Musharraf’s loyalists, still reeling from their election defeat, in check. But things have hardly improved since then, whether it is people’s hardships because of inflation, food shortages, power cuts, fuel prices or law and order.

Law ministry’s parliamentary adviser Izhar Amrohvi said a regular Senate session was tentatively scheduled to be summoned on August 25 while no decision had been taken yet about when to call the National Assembly after a session had been cancelled.