bill in parliament

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: The combined opposition in the National Assembly decided on Monday to introduce a bill in parliament under which army officers/personnel and judges of superior courts would also come under the purview of the accountability laws of the land.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Parliament House cafeteria after an en bloc walkout from the lower house, the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) leaders were also joined by those of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in demanding an end to the protection being provided to the generals and judges from the laws applicable to other citizens of the country.

Explaining the decision of an ARD parliamentary party meeting, Mr Aitzaz Ahsan of the People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPP) said, while reviewing the circumstances and the aftermath of the scuffle of the driver of a major general with a police constable in Lahore “we all have come to understand that it had happened because of the discriminatory implementation of law.”

When asked whether the MMA also supported the ARD’s proposal, alliance’s Deputy Secretary-General Liaquat Baloch said: “We all demand equality of all citizens before law.”

Mr Ahsan said justice demanded that the general’s driver should have been handcuffed instead of the hapless police cop. The “general involved in humiliating senior police officials”, he further said, should be brought to book.

The incident, he said, had shaken the conscience of the whole nation and, hence, it had been decided that in consultation with the lawyers’ community “we must introduce a law in parliament which makes all citizens, including army generals and judges of superior judiciary, answerable to the laws of the land”.

He said no individual or institution was above law or superior than parliament and the state.

Another PPP leader, Shah Mehmud Qureshi, declared that his party was neither involved in any secret deal with the army nor would it ever do so in future.

He said Ms Benazir Bhutto’s statement vis-a-vis a deal with the Musharraf government was published out of context.

All opposition parties, he further said, wanted a negotiated settlement through a meaningful dialogue but the government had amply showed its non-seriousness in pursuing such a dialogue.

Earlier, ARD Chairman Javed Hashmi condemned the victimisation of the police force for the wrong of an army general’s driver, and said the nation did not accept it as just.

Flaying what he termed one-sided military operations in Federally Administered Areas, he said it was the right of parliament to decide about such matters.