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NA takes up judges’ restoration, UN investigation today

* Federal minister says issues such as price hikes, blasphemous cartoons, law and order situation to be discussed in coming days

By Zulfiqar Ghuman

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly will take up a three-point agenda during its first working session on Thursday (today), Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Khursheed Shah said on Wednesday.

The minister said the three-point agenda included the formation of parliamentary committees to work out a draft package for restoring the judges sacked on November 3, including sacked chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and repealing the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), which is enforced in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Shah, who is also chief whip for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said the assembly’s top priority would be to pass a resolution recommending the government request a United Nations-led investigation into the assassination of PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto.

He said that after addressing the first two items on the agenda, the assembly would start debate on the prevailing energy crisis in the country, through an adjournment motion. Shah said that the opposition’s privilege motions and adjournment motions would be accommodated as well.

Further discussions: The federal minister added that issues such as price hikes and inflation, publication of blasphemous caricatures in Danish newspapers, the law and order situation in the country, and soaring petroleum prices would be discussed in the coming days. He said the PPP would “try to pass a resolution seeking parliament’s apology over the ‘judicial murder’ of party’s founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.”

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has announced it will protest against the “political terrorism” of the PPP-led ruling coalition.

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, while speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, said, “Our members will wear black armbands and protest in and outside the National Assembly against the excesses of the ruling coalition against former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and former federal minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, and the political victimisation of our workers.”

As the leader of the house will have a seat designated for him, the opposition’s leader-designate Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has not been officially notified so far and therefore the opposition leader’s seat will remain empty.

A senior member of the PPP said that Elahi would be notified in this regard after meeting “some procedural requirements”.

In the previous parliament, the chair of the leaders of the opposition in both the National Assembly and the Senate remained empty for over a year.

Sources in the National Assembly Secretariat told Daily Times that senior leaders of the ruling coalition parties, including PPP Vice Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, had been allotted seats in the front row, to the right of the speaker.

The leaders of the opposition parties had been allotted seats in the front row to the left of the speaker, as per parliamentary tradition, they added.

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