It was a stirring moment when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani stood up in the National Assembly Monday evening to announce a new format for presentation of the defence budget. It was an unprecedented move, and one that had the agreement of the services chiefs.
(The Prime Minister named only the Army Chief of Staff, but it should be understood that he must have meant the Naval and the Air Chiefs of Staff as well).
This should mean that the defence wing accept that the military take a lower place than civilian government, and is trying to be in step with the nation, as called for by the Prime Minister in his speech, when a month ago, he entertained the formation commanders at the Prime Minister's House.
However, at this moment no one knew the exact configuration of the budget format. After the mandate received in the election of February 18, the elected representatives of the people have asked many times that they would like to scrutinise defence outlay and sundry undisclosed items.
Obviously, for reasons, that should be understandable, the defence outlay to the National Assembly need not contain information, that need security cover, such as the number of personnel and nature of future purchases. But the Prime Minister's initiative of Monday meant that the defence establishment has to tell the lawmakers-and the public by implication-what it had spent the money on.
Also, the Prime Minister's statement suffered from a few omissions. While declaring the policy 'to freeze defence expenditure' he also reiterated that Pakistan sought 'peace with our neighbours, and also repeated his wish for 'reciprocal gesture from our neighbour." It would be noticed that he used singular number at one place and plural number in the same sentence.
Incidentally, the Prime Minister also confirmed that the budget would be presented on June 11 (tomorrow). This was a welcome move, in view of some prevailing doubts, whether, after shifting the budget presentation date twice, the government would now stick to the date ( of June 11).
Again, one did not know whether the Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said this to create good appreciation in the western (read US) press that the new administration in Pakistan was going the whole hog on the war on terror. The western press had been making this accusation after the government reached an agreement with the likes of Fazlullah of Swat and Baitullah Mehsud in the tribal areas.
Be that as it might, this afternoon, Rehman Malik's made frightful disclosure of nabbing nine would-be suicide bombers, and four vehicles laden with 1200 kilograms or more of explosives. 'An entire sector of the federal capital would have been up in the air if one of those vehicles, each laden with 400 kgs of explosives, or more, would have detonated.'
Rehman Malik was also certain that he had broken the gang responsible for the mischief mongering , and has promised to display suicide vests, weapons and other explosives from lads of 18 years or more, who are distributed white garments, and told to wear perfumes, with promise of going straight to Paradise, after blowing themselves and many innocent Pakistanis.'
On this subject the Adviser reflected on the quality of instructions in madrassahs, which is completely alien to the teachings of peace and harmony of our religion. (Of 17, 000 only 14000 Madrassahs are registered). He repeated this also on the Senate floor while making a statement on the law an order situation of the country.
Nevertheless, it is debatable whether catching four or more vehicles could bring the suicide bombings or terrorism to an end. According to the author of new book Who is a terrorist, such happenings are post 9/11 phenomenon, and that terrorist activities have increased many times after illegal US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the case of the debate on local governments, in which according to some lawmakers in the National Assembly, the recurring theme was that the system needed improvement. According to a MQM lady member, local government was a model the way it worked at Karachi.
On the other hand, Barrister S. M. Zafar, speaking in the Senate, on a different, but similar subject, of law and order, said the new elected members have failed in bringing good governance. He advocated that the government should keep reconciliation as the guiding principle. "Vote to a number of parties means that the people want the lawmakers to cooperate and not pull each other down."
The National Assembly and Senate business had a wide canvas, and it reflected a number of moods in the advent of democracy after a long period of military rule in Pakistan.
Just before the Maghrib prayers, Prime Minister Gilani returned to answer a call attention notice by Marvy Hussain, Humayoun Saifullah Khan, Bushra Rahman and Muhammad Raza Hayat Hiraj, on the government missing the target of stashing 5 million tons of wheat and the reason for the scarcity of atta.
He assured her that as from the next year he would ensure support price of wheat to the farmers much before the harvest time. A committee headed by a Minister would also keep check on the prices and arrange commodities that fell short of requirements.
One saw the press gallery crowded with cameras of 10 TV channels, now that Speaker National Assembly has admitted all TV channels to telecast the proceedings of the House. For the present they would only record the proceedings and broadcast them later. However, the space for them to do the work is very little. What if all 40 or more channels showed up to broadcast the proceedings?
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