ISLAMABAD: Despite an announcement by PIA employees to end their weeklong strike against the proposed privatisation of the airline, a showdown between the government and opposition is likely in Senate over the alleged mishandling of the issue when the upper house of the parliament will meet here on Wednesday.

The opposition believes that employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have shown a good gesture by ending their strike and the ball is now in the government’s court and the rulers will now have to come out with their future plan of action in clear terms.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar, when contacted, dispelled the impression that the PIA employees’ decision to end their strike ahead of the requisitioned Senate session has deflated the opposition’s plan to lodge a strong protest on the floor of the parliament.

The decision, he said, in fact had provided them an opportunity to take the government to task on the mishandling of the entire issue.

Mr Babar said now the focus of the debate would be on how to turnaround the PIA without its privatisation and they would like to hear from the government about its future plan.

Rules silent about agenda of session

“We will ask the government to tell the house about those who are responsible for mishandling the situation and causing a huge financial and reputation loss to the country,” he said, adding: “We will also call for making the responsible persons accountable for it.”

The PPP senator said that the opposition would also give its proposals to the government for reforms in PIA.

“Privatisation is not the only solution for turning around the PIA. There are other better solutions which can be discussed,” he said.

Mr Babar said that a meeting of representatives of all opposition parties had been convened before the start of the session to devise a joint strategy to give the government a tough time.

On the other hand, Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, when contacted, said that apparently there seemed to be no reason for the opposition to protest over the issue after the PIA employees’ decision to end their strike. However, he said, the opposition members would definitely dig out some new points so that they could lodge a protest.

The Senate had witnessed a full-fledged debate on the PIA issue in the recent past which ended up in verbal clashes and walkouts by opposition members.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani has summoned the session on the requisition of the opposition members which they had submitted hours after the killing of two protesting PIA employees because of the firing in Karachi on Feb 2.

Besides seeking discussion on the PIA issue, the opposition members have also sought discussion on the issues of insufficient reduction in oil prices and the government’s decision to burden gas consumers with Rs101 billion through imposition of a new tax.

The requisition notice had been signed by 34 senators belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Balochistan National Party-Awami and some independent members of Fata.

Interestingly, no member of the Awami National Party (ANP) has signed the requisition notice despite the fact that the ANP is a part of the combined opposition under the leadership of PPP’s Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan.

The opposition members in the National Assembly also submitted the requisition notice on the same issues on the same day. However, the government has so far not convened the National Assembly session.

Meanwhile, the Senate Secretariat issued on Tuesday an eight-point agenda for the Wednesday’s session and surprisingly it does not contain any agenda item submitted by opposition members in their requisition notice.

The agenda comprises government business, including presentation of some committee reports, laying of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, and the Minimum Wages for Unskilled Workers (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

Sources in the Senate Secretariat pointed out a big anomaly, saying that Senate rules were completely silent on the issue of the agenda for the requisitioned session. So much so, they said, there had been no mention of the word requisition in Senate rules.

They said that under Article 54 of the Constitution, one-fourth members could submit a requisition notice for summoning of the Senate session within two weeks time. However, they said, the Senate rules had never been amended for implementation of the provision of the constitution.

They said that 13 sessions of Senate had so far been requisitioned in the past and in all those sessions the then chairmen had allowed discussion on the opposition’s agenda by allowing suspension of the rules.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016