The government finally relented and accepted opposition's demand to refer Textile Minister Mushtaq Cheema's brokered tent procurement contract to the relevant committee, thus, bringing the opposition back to the House on Friday.
On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition Raza Rabbani had led his colleagues out of the House following a heated debate centred on PPPP's Dr Abdullah Riar's allegation that Mushtaq Cheema's hands are tainted as he compromised on the quality of the tents.
In fact, even then the government was agreeable to the opposition's demand provided it withdrew its corruption charge against the minister. But the opposition remained stuck to its guns and instead of being voted out on the issue preferred to stage a walkout as boycott.
That boycott was to continue for the rest of the days of the ongoing session. On the eve of the donors' conference the boycott of the proceedings in the Upper House on the issue of the tent deal would have been extremely embarrassing for the government.
As soon as the House was called to order by Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, Raza Rabbani said the opposition would end its boycott followed by Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad, who thanked him, and Cheema said he had no objection if the matter is referred to the relevant committee, which in this case is the Senate's industry committee.
Dr Riar was co-opted to the committee at his request. The government seemed to have accepted the opposition's demand hoping its leaders would agree to attend the donors' conference. But it seems now that that optimism was misplaced.
According to latest reports, the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and Jamaat-i-Islami will not attend the donors' conference, giving strength to the donors' doubts about the Pakistan government's ability to utilise funds in a transparent manner.
With tent procurement matter resolved the chair opened the House for the question hour. Only about half a dozen questions were listed on the orders of the day, but these took more than the allotted hour. Ably given replies, particularly to the supplementaries, by Health Minister Nasir Khan created an ambience of bonhomie on the floor.
He made the interesting disclosure that in view of their higher marks more and more girls are getting admitted to the medical colleges. But there after they start dropping out and at the end less than 30 percent of them joins the profession as doctors.
He said TB is very much a treatable disease now and that sanatoriums are no more needed because the patients can be treated at their homes. Assisting Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Bakhtiar Khusro, Education Minister General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd) observed that COMSTECH, the only OIC-affiliated institution in Pakistan, does not receive any funds from the conference.
Yes, that's right the state minister chipped in, adding that the next month's special OIC Summit in Makkah will look into this and similar issues.
The debate on the motion that the situation arising out of the earthquake on October 8 be discussed was taken up rather late in the day and only mentionable speech was by Nisar Memon.
A staunch ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) leader and chairman of the Senate's defence committee, he made a forceful case of army's prompt reaction to the tragedy giving its minute-by-minute account. But he also warned that consequent to the killer quake it remains a "live situation" as the tectonic plates continue to crash into each other.
On the very first day the PML-Q leadership decided that while it would remain on the forefront of relief activities it would not raise its flag over them.
Giving an informed perspective to the question whether military establishment had reacted quick enough Senator Nisar Memon said at 0905 hours, only some 15 minutes after the quake struck, an army helicopter was over the Margalla Towers. By 0945 another helicopter had reached Bagh. By 1030 lead elements of the army were at the Margalla Towers.
At 1100 the chief of general staff was in the air over the stricken areas for reconnaissance and by 1115 hrs army had launched its activity in Muzaffarabad. By 1130 the first helicopter had flown in the first casualty. At 1200 army ambulances were at the Margalla Towers to pick up the injured. By the evening of October 8 the army had ferried 709 casualties, including some 270 army personnel.
The same day at 1455 hours the Abbotabad-based military elements had moved to the calamity-hit areas. At 1700 hours the COGS presented his report to the president and the prime minister.
Nisar Memon said General Farooq and Zubair would brief the Senate on November 21. The only other speaker of the day was Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's Hidyatullah Shah, who hails from Balakot, one of the worst hit areas. At least 30,000 people were killed there but for the first three days no significant official activity was seen. Last year also when an earthquake hit Allai killing about 100 no one took notice of that tragedy. The House will now meet on Monday afternoon.