ISLAMABAD, April 9: Overcoming initial objections, the government moved the National Security Council (NSC) bill in the Senate on Friday where it expected to meet stiff opposition.
However, before the opposition's moves to refer the bill to a house standing committee for scrutiny and for its circulation to elicit public opinion were rejected, it won a government promise for a briefing within a week on the recent military operations in tribal areas.
The bill, passed by the 342-seat National Assembly on Wednesday amid opposition protests, must be adopted by the 100-seat Senate to become a law that will create a 13-member NSC.
The bill's presentation by Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj was the only legislative business set on the agenda of the inaugural day of the 11th Senate session where Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, with a reported agreement of both the treasury and opposition benches, set Tuesday to begin a general debate on the bill.
But the chairman allowed some opposition members to speak on points of order about last month's military operation in the South Waziristan agency, high prices and shortages of commodities such as steel and wheat flour and alleged excesses by some federal agencies in Balochistan.
There was a brief furore when PPP leader Raza Rabbani and Mr Hiraj exchanged harsh words before the ruling coalition rejected a motion by Sanaullah Baloch (BNM-Mengal) seeking to refer the NSC bill to a house committee for consideration.
Mr Baloch said a detailed discussion in the committee was necessary because of the "most sensitive" nature of the bill that would create a supra-constitutional body to give the military supremacy over parliament.
He said the government had "the power, money, weapons and legal and illegal means" at its disposal to have its way "but it will never get authority to rule people's hearts".
PPP's Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi criticized the bill as a negation of the Constitution, and said its reference to a Senate committee was essential because it was bulldozed in the National Assembly while opposition members were not even invited to a lower house committee that adopted the draft within half an hour after its introduction last Friday.
Mr Hiraj accused the PPP members of deliberately absenting themselves from a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs when it considered the NSC bill, only to provoke protests from the PPP members and shouts of "lota, lota" - a reference to his defection from the PPP to join the PPP-Patriots group after the October 2002 elections.
The house also rejected by a voice vote a motion that was moved by PPP's Latif Khan Khosa seeking to circulate the bill for eliciting public opinion. The move was opposed by leader of the house Wasim Sajjad, who said such a move was unnecessary after the National Assembly's passage and would only delay the matter.
An argument over a religious issue advanced by Prof Khurshid also failed to delay the bill's introduction after Mr Soomro declined to halt proceedings after the muezzin called for Friday prayers.
The MMA member reminded the chair of what he called a clear Quranic injunction for believers to cease trading after being summoned to Friday prayers. But the chairman said there was still time left for the start of the prayers.
WANA BRIEFING: Responding to criticism of the Wana operations by Mr Rabbani and Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Mr Hiraj told the house the government would arrange 'within this week' a briefing for Senate members. "We are ready... we will brief them on all these issues," he said.
But he rejected fears that the government's conduct as an ally in the US-led war on terrorism had endangered Pakistan. "There is no danger to Pakistan's sovereignty and integrity," he said and, in a reference to retracted recent remarks by US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad that coalition forces could go into Pakistani territory to hunt militants, said no foreign intervention in Pakistani territory would be allowed.
Mr Rabbani said Pakistan faced 'serious dangers' because of what he called an unthoughtful operation in Wana in which he said more than 60 troops, two tehsildars and hundreds of civilians were killed and a large number of local people were displaced.
He said the South Waziristan conflict had spilled over to other parts of 'Pashtunkhawa' and was also being felt in Sindh. "This house needs a detailed briefing (on the issue) and if need be it could be held in-camera," he said.
Prof Khurshid supported Mr Rabbani's demand for a briefing and described as "shameful" what he called muted reaction from the foreign ministry and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed over Mr Khalilzad's remarks.
He said intervention by the US forces would be resisted not only by the Pakistani military but also by people and tribal lashkars in the same way as the Iraqi people were resisting occupation of their country.
The MMA member also called for a rejection of a US offer to give Pakistan the status of a "major non-Nato ally", which would entitle the country to special military and economic assistance.
PML-N's Ishaq Dar sought an explanation from the government about what it was doing to meet the situation caused by high prices and shortages of steel and wheat flour which he said were mainly due to smuggling to Afghanistan.
Industries and Production Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi blamed international market position for high prices of imported steel in Pakistan, but said they were still lower than world prices. He also expressed the hope that an expected bumper crop this year would remove wheat shortages caused by crop damage the previous year.
Amanullah Kanrani of JWP and Aslam Buledi of BNM complained about the role of federal agencies such as the Anti-Narcotics Force, Coastguards and the Frontier Corps in Balochistan, and said lands of local people were being forcibly acquired to build cantonments.
"Cantonments are being constructed wherever there is potential of income (like oil in Kohlu and port in Gwadar)," Mr Kanrani said. Mr Buledi said nobody's honour was safe and despite the presence of "these forces" a Kalashnikov was available for the price of an air gun.
Raza Mohammad Raza of PKMAP accused the government of unnecessarily prolonging military operations in the tribal areas with the objective of changing the status of the region.
He said any attempt to change the status of the area would be resisted by people even in Balochistan. The Senate was adjourned until 5pm on Monday, which will be a private members' day to take motions or legislative business proposed by private members.
There was no indication how long the NSC bill will take to be passed, although Mr Wasim Sajjad told the house that a business advisory committee had agreed to allow a party leader half an hour and other members 10 to 15 minutes each to make their speeches in the general debate beginning on Tuesday.
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