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ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Amid rising tensions in the National Assembly, the government said on Friday it would probe whether former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had violated her oath of office by revealing an old military briefing to an Indian journalist.
The statement that the law and parliamentary affairs ministry would examine the issue came after five ruling coalition members moved a call-attention notice over the matter amid an opposition protest in the house against the LFO.
The move was denounced by the opposition parties as provocative and designed to divert attention from the current constitutional deadlock.
It was based on Ms Bhutto’s interview last month in a New York-based fortnightly magazine India Abroad that quoted her as saying that General Pervez Musharraf had presented a war plan to her — that she rejected as prime minister in the 1990s — to send Mujahideen to Kargil and finally capture Srinagar.
Gen Musharraf was the director of military operations at the time, and interviewer Shyam Bhatia quoted Ms Bhutto as saying she rejected the plan otherwise the blood of about 3,000 Pakistani soldiers killed in the Kargil operation later in 1999 would have been on her hands.
Friday’s was the latest in a series of recent moves from the treasury benches, spearheaded by smaller allies of the PML-Q such as the PPP-Patriots group of defectors from the PPP, to put opposition on the defensive.
PPP-Patriots leader and Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal did not personally respond to the call-attention notice and the lot fell to group member and his ministry’s parliamentary secretary Tanvir Hussain Syed to make a scathing attack on Ms Bhutto, his former party leader, for an alleged betrayal of national interest.
OPPOSITION’S VIEW: Opposition parties grouped in the ARD and the MMA, speaking to reporters after an 80-minute assembly session, accused the government of using turncoats for provoking them and diverting attention from such issues as the LFO and the situation on the border with Afghanistan.
But they said the opposition would continue its protest against the LFO and would not accept the document as part of the Constitution unless it was approved by parliament.
ARD parliamentary leader Javed Hashmi endorsed Ms Bhutto’s interview about a matter that he said was no longer a secret after the Kargil plan had been executed. He said generals rather politicians should be tried for treason for violating the Constitution and leaking military secrets to foreign powers.
Mr Syed told the house that the government would refer the matter to the law and parliamentary affairs ministry to determine whether Ms Bhutto had violated the Official Secrets Act or her oath that prohibited her to disclose matters which came to her knowledge while in office.
But he saw a brighter side of the interview, which he said had made it evident that the Pakistani military “from a sepoy...to a general” always remained engaged in making not one but many contingency plans against an enemy.
In a reference to corruption charges often levelled against the self-exiled former prime minister, he said the interview also showed the military had been concerned with ways to liberate Kashmir and defend Pakistan rather than “loot the country’s exchequer”.
“When our general will put off his uniform, it will smell of the blood of martyrdom...but their clothes will give out foul smell and dust,” Mr Syed said rhetorically, pointing his fingers to protesting opposition members, who chanted lota, lota during his speech.
The call-attention notice was given by M.P. Bhandara (PML-Q), Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada (National Alliance), Sher Afgan Niazi (PPP-Patriots), Aamir Liaquat Hussain (MQM) and Mohammad Farooq Sattar (MQM).
Mr Bhandara accused the former prime minister of suffering from megalomania and what he called cryptomania as he read out the call-attention notice on behalf of its five sponsors.
“These shouts will not drown the facts of life,” he said about opposition shouting of “Go, Musharraf go” and “No, LFO no” slogans that continued throughout the proceedings before deputy speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub Khan, who chaired the sitting, adjourned the house until 5.30pm on Monday.
Most opposition members wore a new sticker reading aamer-i- waqt murdabad on their chests or shoulders.
VISA EXTENSION: Earlier, in response to another call-attention notice, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said the government would continue its policy of holding inquiries for extension of visas but it could, in specific cases, help remove problems faced by those people of Pakistani origin who are holding Malaysian citizenship.
The notice by five members had drawn the minister’s attention to what it called “cumbersome procedure adopted for people holding Malaysian citizenship and residing in the country, particularly in district Buner (in the NWFP) for extension of their visas after expiry of 90 days”.
Mr Hayat said a policy formulated three years ago required a careful examination of requests for extending visas beyond 90 days because of the prevailing security situation in the region and rejected a demand for exemption from the procedure for people of Pakistani origin. But he said things would be easier for people holding “Pakistan origin” cards.
