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ISLAMABAD: After a string of setbacks, a badly wounded opposition will have to pull off something special to make a good show of wordy duels it has sought to fight with the government mainly over violence-plagued Karachi in special sessions of both houses of parliament beginning on Thursday.
The opposition had sought to put the government on the mat when it put in requisitions for the National Assembly and Senate sessions earlier this month. Deadly violence raged in Karachi and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) based in the city had walked out of the PPP-led coalition, to be eagerly embraced by the PML-N which at that time had sought to form a ‘grand opposition alliance’.
But the situation appears to have drastically changed now when the sessions are being held, with clear divisions among opposition parties on different issues likely to spare the government a painful onslaught even on agenda issues of Karachi, failure to implement Supreme Court orders and alleged rigging in last month’s Legislative Assembly elections in Azad Kashmir won by the Pakistan People’s Party -- cited by joint requisitions of the PML-N and MQM to be discussed by the two houses.
As the main opposition party, the PML-N has been the major sufferer in recent weeks that brought it hardly any good news and its apparent isolation is likely to be reflected in this week’s parliamentary debates.
The PML-N lost the Azad Kashmir elections to the PPP, its candidate could not make it to the slot of the leader of the opposition in the Senate in an embroiling row with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), plans of its leader Nawaz Sharif for a grand opposition alliance appear shattered, at least for the time being, by the MQM making peace with the PPP and asking its Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad to withdraw his resignation, although the party will continue to sit on opposition benches in parliament and the Sindh Assembly.
And then a blow came from PML-N’s own ranks when one of its two National Assembly members from Islamabad, Anjum Aqeel Khan, escaped from police custody with the help of armed supporters after being arrested for alleged property frauds, only to face the additional charge of terrorism.
In such dire straits, the opposition benches in the National Assembly will miss their respected and outspoken leader, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is on a private foreign visit, while JUI-F’s opposition leader in the Senate, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, is unlikely to play ball to the liking of the rival opposition group led by the PML-N.
How to go about in the requisitioned sessions was an issue discussed at a PML-N leadership meeting chaired by Nawaz Sharif in Murree on Wednesday and a hard-line party member of the National Assembly, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, was asked to meet MQM lawmakers to know about their stance before the start of the sessions at 5pm, a party source said.
Although the sessions are basically meant for the requisitions’ agenda, an order of the day issued by the Senate secretariat for Thursday cited a government bill already passed by the National Assembly to give effect in Pakistan to conventions concerning international carriage by air as the day’s legislative business, while a statement by the Jamaat-i-Islami’s parliamentary affairs wing listed a host of issues, including US drone attacks on Pakistani tribal areas, target killing in Karachi, petroleum prices and power cuts, that it said would be raised by its members in the Senate.
