Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Central Senior Vice President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has said on Friday that the government did not consult his party - a major partner in the ruling coalition - before taking key decisions. He said that all important matters should be discussed in the National Assembly if the supremacy of parliament was to be maintained.
Talking to newsmen, he cited the operation in the Khyber Agency as well as the recent hike in petroleum and gas prices are two issues on which the PML-N was not consulted. Referring to the Khyber Agency operation, he said that Pakistan should follow it own policy and not kill the innocent people on the wishes of the US government.
He said that this mistake was similar to the Kargil blunder. He said that PPP Government had betrayed the PML-N by launching an operation in the Khyber Agency, as two and half months ago the coalition partners had agreed during a high-level meeting to adopt a policy of dialogue in the region. He said he did not know what caused the change in approach. In regard to Nawaz Sharif's recent meeting with US envoy Richard Boucher, he said the former Prime Minister told the US envoy that Pakistan's internal affairs should be managed by the government without outside interference.
Voicing his dismay over non-reinstatement of the deposed judges, Javed Hashmi said the PML-N was supporting the PPP-led government to rid the country from the vestiges of dictatorship. He recalled that Mian Nawaz Sharif and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari had made a public commitment to restore the judges. "If commitments are not fulfilled at this level then at what level will these be fulfilled?" he asked. "We have to restore the 1973 constitution. We have to restore rule of law and we have to make the parliament sovereign," Hashmi added.
He also commented that in reality the parliament was not acting as a sovereign institution. The PML-N leader said he had impressed upon the PPP co-chairman the importance of resolving the judge's issue. He said that he had avoided joining the federal cabinet as his party had withdrawn its ministers from the federal cabinet. The senior PML-N leader added that it had made this "sacrifice" for a larger cause that stilled remained to be fulfilled. Replying to a question about the lawyer community's plan to hold another long march this month, he said that the party would continue supporting the lawyers' movement.
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