ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: ARD members in the National Assembly on Thursday submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly Secretariat seeking a debate on a foreign newspaper report, which claimed that President Gen Pervez Musharraf carried out the air strike on a Bajaur Madressah under pressure from the US and other forces.
The adjournment motion, signed by 16 MNAs of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), has been moved under Rule 92 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct in the National Assembly 1992.
A copy of the motion was made available to Dawn.
Quoting the report, the ARD members in their motion stated: “The new dangerous scenario in Pakistan is showing that Gen Musharraf has no options just rocks and hard places, and attack by Pakistan Army helicopters on a religious school shows that the General is running out of options to control his lawless western border. There seems no coherent plan as he switches from peace deals with tribesmen to attack on them.”
The motion further states: “According to London Times, Musharraf could do this after new pressure. London Times says that these are Musharraf’s choices to send a protesting army back to fighting in the tribal areas, to strike targets from the air risking accusations that children have been killed and handing religious leaders easy propaganda, (or) to strike more peace deals that give Taliban and other militants almost everything they want. It is said that the US and the UK now plan to put new pressure on Musharraf to sort out the borders and the tribal regions but it is far from clear how he should do it or how they might help. Some fear that this single deal has made Nato campaign in Southern Afghanistan impossible to win. Gen Musharraf clearly saw it as the least option under huge pressure from army, which is said to have suffered more than 700 deaths in two and half years fighting in Waziristan.”
The motion says, “Times writes that at the heart of Musharraf’s predicament is the failure of the Waziristan Pact. In the past six weeks, Taliban have established themselves in NWFP and the tribal territories along the borders beyond formal government in Islamabad.”
“The disclosure of these facts by London Times is a matter of anxiety and concern for the general public of Pakistan. The parliament should discuss and know the facts on the information revealed by the newspaper, adjourning the business of the National Assembly forthwith,” concludes the motion.
The motion carries the signatures of Syed Khurshid Shah, Nayyar Bokhari, Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, Fauzia Wahab, Chaudhry Aitezaz Ahsan, Sherry Rehman, Khalid Iqbal Memon, Naheed Khan, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, Ghulam Murtaza Satti and Zulfiqar Gondal of the PPP and Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Tehmina Daultana and Khawaja Asif of the PML-N.
Earlier, the opposition members from the ARD and the MMA had already submitted separate motions in the National Assembly and the Senate secretariats seeking discussion on the Bajaur incident in which over 80 persons were killed during an air raid on a Madressah last week.