ISLAMABAD, March 30: To break a stalemate, parliament’s review of Pakistan’s strategic ties with the United States moved to a second, behind-the-scenes channel again on Friday after an apparent pep talk to doubters by country’s top civilian and military leadership.
As the joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate went into a five-day recess after debating guidelines of a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on National Security for the third day, the committee too began pondering if it could accommodate an opposition about-face on its original report. The adjournment of the debate until April 5 and a separate committee meeting were in line with decisions of an overnight meeting of the civilian and military leadership that focused on “serious reservations” voiced by two main opposition parties over the committee recommendations even though their representatives on the body had signed the document.
Refusals by the PML-N, the main opposition party, and JUI-F to endorse the report, or even formally participate in the debate unless their concerns were addressed, led to a stalemate, putting in jeopardy the government’s plans for a unanimous approval of what are called “guidelines for revised terms of engagement” with US-led forces fighting in Afghanistan.
At the start of the debate on Tuesday, opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the PML-N, had said the opposition would not be party to the exercise unless its serious reservations were addressed first while JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman went to the extent of threatening, like Taliban rebels, to forcibly obstruct Nato supplies to Afghanistan via Pakistani land route.
Pakistan suspended Nato supplies and ordered the vacation of its Shamsi airbase in Balochistan by US personnel and called for an apology for a US helicopter strike on two Pakistani border posts in the Mohmand tribal area in November that killed 24 soldiers.
The recommendations of the parliamentary committee headed by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani include levying charges for and monitoring of Nato supplies, cessation of US drone attacks in tribal areas, a US apology for the Nov 25-25 Mohmand attack and parliamentary approval for any use of Pakistani bases or airspace by foreign forces.
The Thursday night leadership meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, followed his return from Seoul where he discussed the currently strained Pakistan-US relations with US President Barack Obama on fringes of a nuclear security summit, talks this week of two visiting American generals with the Pakistani military leadership as well as an earlier meeting President Asif Ali Zardari held with US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman in Dushanbe.
The participants of the meeting at the prime minister’s house included parliamentary leaders of both PPP-led ruling coalition and opposition parties as well as Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt and the new director-general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt-Gen Zahirul Islam.
Very little was revealed about the proceedings of the meeting except a brief press release from the Prime Minister’s House indicating that the government had not given up its hope for parliamentary unanimity.
“To remove the reservation of different parties on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and to evolve consensus on unanimous recommendations in the joint sitting, the committee will hold its informal sittings,” the release said.
As if giving an inkling of the five-hour overnight meeting, one of its participants, Senator Mushahid Hussain of the government-allied Paksitan Muslim League-Q, told the house during Friday’s debate that “very positive suggestions came last night”, though he regretted to find parliamentarians “scared” and “hesitant” to follow up the committee’s recommendations signed by their parties.
But Mr Hussain, whose concise speech was repeatedly cheered by the treasury benches, also had his own reservations about “ambiguities in some areas” in what he otherwise called a “very comprehensive … and good report”, such as those about the presence of foreign privatecontractors and intelligence operatives in Pakistan and possible use of Pakistani airbases, which he said should be removed.
In what he cited as two “core issues”, Mr Hussain proposed that Nato supplies to Afghanistan must not include weapons as the United States was already seeking to negotiate peace with Taliban, and that other supplies like food and medicines be linked with a cessation of drone attacks.
The house debate, in which seven lawmakers from both sides of the house took part was briefly interrupted for the passage, without any debate, two government bills that had already been passed by the National Assembly but not passed by the Senate.
One of them, the Modaraba Companies and Modaraba (Floatation and Control) (Amendment) Bill, amends the Modaraba (Floatation and Caontrol) Ordinance of 1980 to strengthen regulatory powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan for the stated objective of safeguarding the interests of modaraba investors, bringing efficiency in modaraba management and strengthening the non-banking companies’ sector.
The other, the Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Bill, amends the Delimitation of Constituencies Act of 1974 to bring its provisions with certain articles of the constitution as amended by the Eighteenth Amendment.