FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi put in yet another good performance at the National Assembly on Thursday. Here, he spoke in defence of Pakistan's sovereign right and the sneak activities of American predator drones that lob bombs on Pakistan territory.
This morning Aftab Khan Sherpao had spoken about unity in the ranks of political parties, on this subject. Hence, foreign minister Qureshi extended a friendly hand to the former Interior Minister- as well as other Opposition colleagues - to sit down with him and draft a comprehensive national policy in this regard.
Qureshi would be travelling to Paris on June 12 to sit through a brainstorming session to halt terrorist activities. But he also promised to articulate the sentiments of Pakistani and Pashtun people on the activities of American drones. 'We find such activities offensive and we have been protested all along on all such past four incidents and the bombing on Pakistani citizens."
He was also conscious of our obligation to the international coalition partners in the war of terror and would also speak in a forthright manner about sovereignty issues. Nevertheless, he reminded Aftab Sherpao that as former Minister he must have been through this before, and knew that American drones had violated Pakistan territory on three other occasions. Shah Mahmud Qureshi accused Aftab Sherpao for creating impression that the incident was the first, and the new administration, which had taken over 66 days earlier, was still in a span of political wilderness.
But he would not cow down to the terrorists and would strike hard at them, if necessary, with force. However, his real aim is to assist Afghanistan establish peace within its own borders, because terrorists were fanning out from there to violate Pakistan tribal areas.
'Peace in Afghanistan is vital for progress of Pakistan, as well as for its development plans as well as for a number of energy pipelines that is expected to pass through that land. Between Pakistan and Afghanistan we have trade volume of 2 billion dollar.
No response came from Aftab Sherpao, on the Foreign Minister's offer. However, at the time Foreign Minister was speaking in the House we learnt of an operation at Naushera, Sherpao's province, where a NWFP constable was killed through militant action.
In addition, a security personnel had died at Quetta through another militant action. At the same time we heard reports that the Americans were getting displeased with the peace agreement Pakistan had reached with tribal elements and they were trying to find a way to undo it.
Surely such reports heightened the sense of urgency in the debate, and brought out sensitive issues in dealing gently with our own citizens, since the matter is looked upon with suspicion by the West and the USA.
Another reward came after finding that Leader of the House Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was present in the House. This morning the Prime Minister expressed his predicament in answering Assembly Questions. He was willing to begin but Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza had not designated a particular day for. Hopefully, he would do so after the budget presentation.
Happily, the Prime Minister stood up to announce the appointment of a Minorities Minister. He stood up on two different occasions to highlight issues of grave public concern, and promised a national health policy to properly take care of debilitating diseases such as Hepatitis, as well as to straighten out anomaly and kinks during regularisation of contract employees.
But his most striking statement was about the legislature's supremacy over the executive. He followed it up by quoting Article 91(4) of the Constitution, which emphasised that Cabinet and the Ministers of State were collectively responsible to the National Assembly.
The Prime Minister's intervention came after PML Q Member Dr Atia Inayetullah reminded him of the commitment to answer questions following the precedent of House of Commons where the Prime Minister answers Questions for 30 minutes every Wednesday.
Gilani has been coming to the House on session days, which is a new tradition. Past Prime Ministers usually kept away and were seen in the House only on important occasions. His presence electrifies the legislature, and Ministers come well prepared to answer questions.
SENATE: As the Senate convened in the evening we witnessed a dramatic walk out by MQM's Senator Ahmad Ali protesting the prolonged power outages lasting well over eight hours at Karachi. In his statement he blamed the present government who had been in the saddle 'for six months now' and still had not done any thing about minimising power logouts.
However, Chairman Soomro requested the Senator to end his one-man walk out. Earlier, Khusbakht Shujaat had raised the same subject in the National Assembly. That was too much for Raza Rabbani to take. He spoke in disgust about former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and held him responsible for deliberately creating power shortage to cripple the Pakistan industry as well as to pave way for economic opportunity for imperialists from the west who wished to capture the Pakistan market.
QUIBBLE ABOUT HOUSE PROCEDURES: By the way, since the last two days, we have seen a number of parliamentary procedures have been challenged both in the Senate as well as National Assembly.
Yesterday Anwar Bhinder objected to an Adjournment Motion introduced by the Treasury benches, because it was only Opposition's prerogative to do so. At the National Assembly this morning Riaz Hussain Pirzada told Speaker Fehmida Mirza that the Order of the Day is tilted in favour of the Treasury benches, but Speaker Fehmida said this was not true.