ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly blew hot and cold on Monday over an opposition leader’s execution in Bangladesh for aiding the Pakistan Army in the 1971 war, ending up with just an expression of “concern” by a divided house at what Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said was “judicial murder”.
The government and its allies as well as the opposition PTI tried hard for a show of parliamentary consensus on the 42nd anniversary of “fall of Dhaka” as they supported a resolution proposed by the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami seeking to condemn the execution of Abdul Quader Mollah of the Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami.
But the opposition PPP and the MQM refused to sign the draft and openly opposed it for different reasons in speeches before the house passed a toned down resolution by voice vote.
Contrary to a mild comment made by the foreign ministry on Friday, Chaudhry Nisar used some tough language in the house, saying Mr Mollah’s hanging had “opened old wounds again”.
He said Mr Mollah and his party remained loyal to Pakistan till the last day of its united existence, adding “that personality was put to the gallows through a judicial murder”.
But the PPP rejected the minister’s call for a consensus on the Jamaat resolution, with a lawmaker from Sindh, Abdul Sattar Bachani, saying his party would not sign the draft because the Jamaat had supported the execution of its founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto following a controversial conspiracy-to-murder conviction.
Since the Dhaka execution had taken place on the orders of the Bangladesh Supreme Court on the charge of killing thousands of Bengalis, he said it was not proper to interfere in another country’s internal affairs.
A PPP source said the Awami National Party too had refused to sign the draft resolution though no ANP member was seen in the house at the time.
The original Jamaat draft had wanted the house to “strongly condemn” the hanging, but an amended draft that was moved by a party member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, only “expressed concern” of the house over the hanging of Mr Mollah for what it called “supporting Pakistan in 1971”.
It urged the Bangladesh government to “not revive the issues of 1971” and “terminate all cases registered against the leaders of Jamaat-i-Islami, Bangladesh, in a spirit of reconciliation”.
