ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the Senate has threatened to withdraw its support for the government if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif does not turn up in the house on Wednesday to wind up the debate on the Peshawar school massacre.

At the outset of the proceedings on Tuesday, Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari pointed out that over 24 senators had so far taken part in the discussion on the Peshawar incident and asked when the government would wind it up.

When Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq informed the Senate that the Minister of State for Interior would wind up debate on Wednesday it evoked an instant reaction from the opposition.

PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani observed that the Peshawar tragedy was a serious matter and the prime minister should come to the house to wind up the discussion.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan flatly refused to listen to the minister of state for interior. Describing the establishment of military courts as a bitter pill, he criticised Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for his undeclared boycott of the house. He also insisted that the prime minister should come to the house to wind up the discussion and warned that tension would rise if it was not done.

Raza Rabbani requested the chair to form a committee comprising all members of the house which should be briefed by the government on the steps taken on 20 points of the national action plan one by one.

He said the government should explain how many of the 400 unregistered madaris in Islamabad had been registered, how many presses had been raided for printing hate literatures and how many people had been arrested for distributing such material.

Raja Zafarul Haq agreed that the government should take the house into confidence and said he would try that either the prime minister or the interior minister wind up the discussion on the Peshawar incident.

He clarified that a multi-party conference recently convened by the prime minister had not been presided over by the army chief. “No meeting of political parties has been held with the COAS in the chair,” he said.

Senator Saeed Ghani of the PPP said that those who had to bow before the wave that united the entire nation after the gruesome Peshawar attack were now trying to stabilise themselves. “An ideology is needed to effectively combat terrorism and extremism.”

He said the nation’s morale could be boosted by only those leaders who fearlessly challenged terrorists, adding that such objective could not be achieved if the prime minister, his cabinet members and political leaders did not come forward.

Senator Ghani said the government’s inaction should not give an impression that it was afraid of Maulana Abdul Aziz. This would demoralise people who would be forced to think how the government would fight Taliban, he added.

He said it was a wrong decision to establish military courts and asked if there was a ‘magic wand’ which would determine which terrorist belonged to a proscribed organisation. He said the move would give the military the power of “pick and choose”. He said that only a non-controversial army could fight terrorists and wondered that the proposed military courts would make the army controversial.

PPP’s Taj Haider observed that terrorists were allowed to reorganise and arm themselves behind the veil of talks. He said the delay in action against terrorists today would give them a chance to breathe. He said intelligence apparatus should be strengthened to know where the terrorists were hiding and what they were planning.

The house will meet at 3pm on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014