Soon after the devastating earthquake of October 8 that hit Azad Kashmir and parts of NWFP, the Opposition parties in the National Assembly had offered their support to the government to meet the humanitarian challenge.
But that offer does not hold anymore because they are resentful that the government did not associate them with any of the decisions it made to deal with various aspects of the relief and rehabilitation effort.
The two Opposition alliances, the ARD and the MMA, have now expressed reluctance to attend an All Parties Conference (APC) called by the ruling party. For its part, the government has been trying to associate them with relief work, though not in any substantive way.
It may be recalled that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had approached the Opposition leaders with the offer of taking them on a tour of the affected areas, but they had refused to go, pointing out that it would be no more than a photo opportunity.
In any case, most of them had visited the place on their own, offering solace and material help from their party sources to the victims. Then the government came up with the idea of holding an APC. And again, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain started contacting different Opposition parties to ask for their participation.
The Opposition leaders have used the opportunity to make two important points: One, that President General Pervez Musharraf had been taking the needed decisions all by himself in his capacity as the COAS, and that in doing so he had bypassed even the Federal cabinet.
And two, that since the President exercised all political power it was from him that the invitations should have come. That was fair enough a position for them to take. It is good to note that the other side, grasping the sensitivities involved, has decided to act accordingly.
The ruling party's Information Secretary said on Wednesday that General Musharraf himself would indeed issue invitations to the proposed APC. Nonetheless, press reports indicate that the opposition parties are disinclined to accept the invitations.
The Opposition has a genuine grievance when it complains of having been ignored in decision making regarding ways and means of grappling with the worst calamity that has hit this country in recent history (some 300,000 people died when a cyclone hit the former East Pakistan in 1970). This is no time though for either side to let political feuds come in the way of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction work.
The proper forum for the government to present its plans for discussion and approval on these issues is Parliament rather than an APC. In fact, it is imperative that Parliament should appoint an oversight body comprising members from both the government and the Opposition in order to ensure transparency in the spending of aid funds.
The people in this country have good reason not to trust their governments with money meant for humanitarian relief. After all, Transparency International's annual Corruption Perception Index for the current year has placed Pakistan at 144th position out of 158 countries.
Instead of making the Opposition offers that are devoid of substance the government should let Parliament determine what may or may not be done.
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