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ISLAMABAD: The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, declared on Friday that the Pakistan Muslim League-N would not attend an in camera joint sitting of both houses of parliament being convened to discuss the Nato attack.
Speaking at a reception given by the Parliamentary Reporters’ Association, he said his party would also not become part of any resolution unless the fate of resolutions passed during previous joint sittings was explained.
Defending the PML-N’s decision to approach the Supreme Court on the memo scandal, he said the government had mocked the authority of parliament by taking all major decisions in the presidency at midnight or in the Prime Minister’s House.
He said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had stated in the National Assembly that the issue was sub judice, but later he had handed the inquiry to a parliamentary committee as an afterthought.
Chaudhry Nisar said he had quit the Public Accounts Committee because he did not see any chance of accountability of departments and individuals tainted with corruption after the appointment of an auditor general who was ‘a disputed person’.
He said there were audit paras worth Rs300 billion pertaining to one year against various departments and the PAC members of his party would play their role in tracking down the corrupt.
He expressed concern over sketchy parliamentary reporting in newspapers and asked the media to bring out mistakes and incompetence of the government in their write-ups to make the role of parliament more tangible and effective.
Referring to a tirade by federal ministers against the PML-N’s decision to move the apex court, he said the PPP had reached new lows and a level of moral and political bankruptcy where people like Babar Awan were its flag-bearers.
He alleged that the PPP co-chairman (President Asif Zardari) had once been a member of the outlawed National Awami Party, an arch rival of the late Mr Bhutto.
