ISLAMABAD: An opposition jirga seeking to resolve the 34-day standoff between the government and protesters besieging parliament is close to a workable solution and wants a five-day ‘ceasefire’ between the two sides and release of detained activists to help achieve its goal, a key member of the group told parliament on Wednesday.

Senator Rehman Malik of the PPP, which is backing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in parliament against the protesters’ demand that he resign, said the formula his six-man group was working on would provide a solution to contentious issues within the bounds of the Constitution and reflect the “voice of the people”.

Restricting himself to what he said the jirga had authorised him to say, the senator said the formula would have a solution to the protesters’ demand for resignations by the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Shahrif and contain a definition of election rigging and propose what should be done if riggings were proved.

He was referring to the allegations by protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) of massive rigging in last year’s general elections at the behest of present-day ruling PML-N.

“It will be in accordance with the Constitution, in accordance with the rule of law and in accordance with the voice of the people,” he said about the formula which would be given to the combined opposition.

Calling for what he termed a ceasefire for five days between the rival sides, he said: “Perhaps we will give you some results.”

Though the jirga is led by Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq, Senator Malik has played a prominent role in the group’s negotiations with the leaders of the protesting parties as a representative of the main opposition party and with a mandate from party leader and former president Asif Ali Zardari.

He said dialogue was the only way out and urged both sides to take “one step backward”.

Mr Malik, who was the interior minister in the previous PPP-led coalition government, jumped into the proceedings at the fag-end of the day’s debate by a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate on the political situation arising from more than a month of sit-ins outside the Parliament House by the PTI and PAT.

NEW COMMITTEE: Amid the debate which resumed after six days’ recess, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani formally proposed, on behalf of his party, the constitution of a new permanent parliamentary committee on national security that could hold dialogue with relevant stakeholders like the military on questions of national security and foreign policy.

This was part of package he proposed to provide also for a joint committee on rules of procedure, another to facilitate passage of bills by both houses, and to provide for the seats of three Senate observers in the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee.

Senator Rabbani’s proposal about what he called the revival of the National Security Committee that was set up under the previous government under his chairmanship to set guidelines in tackling a standoff with the United States, which was supported by Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah, came on the heels of a proposal made last week by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar for a similar forum for a dialogue between parliament and the military.

Though Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq agreed that Mr Rabbani and other PPP front-benchers discuss the matter with treasury benches, Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch voiced his fear the proposal for a national security committee could be misunderstood in the current situation when he said much was made out of a government proposal to Army Chief General Raheel Sharif to facilitate talks between the government and protesting parties.

BALOCHISTAN IN FOCUS: While all parties in the house – minus the boycotting PTI and some of its allies – have opposed the resort to sit-ins and their demand for the prime minister’s resignation, Naseema Ahsan of the opposition Balochistan National Party-Awami gave an indirect support to the protesting parties as she accused Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik of a being the product of a rigged vote.

Terming the demands of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Allama Tahirul Qadri for reforms in the country similar to those voiced by the executed former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she said the rulers should be afraid of the time “when you may see throughout the country what you are now seeing here” in Islamabad.

Her allegations against the chief minister of winning his provincial assembly seat against her husband Ahsan Shah were rejected as baseless later by Senator Sardar Kamal Khan Bungalzai of the chief minister’s National Party.

ANGRY MALIK AND RAMESH: The house also saw Rehman Malik and PML-N’s MNA Ramesh Vankwani angrily denying media reports that a PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad on Monday was delayed by an hour and 45 minutes because of their late arrival at the airport.

Both called for an inquiry into the incident on Monday night, when the PML-N lawmaker was forcibly removed from the plane by some other passengers protesting against the delay and the PPP senator, who, according to himself, got his seat cancelled after witnessing part of the protest.

Senator Malik categorically stated that he had been informed by PIA that the flight was late for technical reasons and that he arrived well in time according to the new schedule given him.

While Dr Vankwani did not say if he had a prior information about the flight delay, he said some people started making a video when he was seated and complained that neither the plane’s captain nor other crew stopped the alleged misbehaviour with him.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014