ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The combined opposition in the National Assembly will hold a demonstration outside the parliament house at 11am on Friday to protest what it called the unjustified military operation against the people of Fata and atrocities being committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This was decided at a meeting held between the MMA’s parliamentary party and Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) members of parliament on Tuesday.
The decision was announced by MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch at a joint news conference and backed by ARD president Javed Hashmi.
Speaking at the news conference, MMA parliamentary leader and vice president Qazi Hussain Ahmed protested against the speaker’s refusal to allow the MMA members to raise the issue of military operation on the floor of the house.
Qazi said he along with MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani and deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed had visited Gwadar town and met a cross section of people there.
He said though general impression on the construction of the deep-sea port was positive, majority of the people complained that they were not being allowed to share the fruits of the development.
ARD president Javed Hashmi said parliament was crippled by General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to keep it under his thumb and “we believe Gen Musharraf and parliament can’t coexist”.
“Gen Musharraf can’t be allowed to continue in power if you want parliament to function and survive,” he said.
Referring to efforts being made to get the Oct 12, 1999 army takeover indemnified by parliament, he said such a step would be unconstitutional.
Mr Hashmi demanded immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
The deputy parliamentary leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said that by stopping the opposition from debating the military operation in the house in the presence of a European Union delegation the speaker had set a bad example.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi of the People’s Party Parliamentarians said the performance of parliament was poor as not a single standing committee was set up during its one year of existence.
He regretted that even the finance bill introduced by the finance minister on Monday could not be sent to the finance committee since it did not exist.
He said the European Union delegation had been informed that the government was so helpless that it could not even maintain quorum in the house on a regular basis.