President Pervez Musharraf has taken serious notice of continued lacklustre attitude of treasury legislators towards the parliamentary proceedings, and has decided to use the services of secret agencies to ensure quorum during the budget sessions, sources told Business Recorder here on Friday. A plan had been chalked out in this regard following the humiliating defeat to the government on the opening day of National Assembly proceedings, sources said.
They said that under the proposed plan, the personnel of secret services had been directed to ensure quorum in the House. The secret agencies have been mandated even to pick ruling party MPs from their residence and bring them to Parliament, especially on next Monday, when the 2005-06 budget would be announced, sources said.
Parliamentary sources said it was not an unusual method to be adopted to ensure the quorum as, in the past, Nawaz and Benazir governments did utilize the services of secret agencies for this purpose.
Sources said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, on return from tour abroad would meet senior leaders of PML, including Shujaat, to devise strategy for the budget session. It is learnt that the Prime Minister and PML President may call on President on Sunday to discuss the situation.
Some ruling party members attributed the defeat on Thursday in the National Assembly to the dinner hosted by Shujaat for L K Advani where all government legislators were invited.
However, the problem continued even on Friday when very few ruling party members turned up to attend the session, eventually forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings. On the other hand, opposition parties are also gearing up to give tough challenge to the government in the wake of apparent differences within the ruling coalition.