Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday came down hard on the government for, what he said, using parliament to promote its personal agenda. However, he vowed to resist any undemocratic and unconstitutional move.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, he said all the opposition parties were united on one point agenda that the future of the country rests in democracy. "They have expressed the resolve during a meeting at his chamber on Thursday not to support any ultra constitutional step," he told the house. However, he harshly criticised the government and held its policies responsible for 'weakening' democracy and the parliament. He also questioned the logic of hurriedly summoning NA session without taking the opposition into confidence.
He hinted at opposing the resolution of the government, saying that his party has no faith in government. He also questioned the justification of moving resolution in the House when there was no threat to the government from outside, adding that the only threat to it was from the corruption and bad governance.
"We will not support the resolution which has been tabled to cover up the past four years' failures of the government," he said. However, the oppsition leader sought time till Monday for voting on the resolution after the PPP's chief whip Syed Khursheed Shah shared its contents with him. He said that despite all drawbacks of the government the House was functioning because the opposition never looked for support from outside to remove the government.
Nisar said that the government had not convened joint session of the parliament on despite repeated requests and its commitment in the wake of Salala incident and Mehran base attack. He vowed to block any resolution in the house which would be against the decision of superior judiciary as he believed that judgements of the apex courts could not be discussed in the house.
He called the issues between government and army as administrative issue, which was created by the contradictory statements of the prime minister and Attorney General and in a sarcastic remark said that this was the same Army Chief who was granted extension by the government to compliment him in such a way that was never seen in the past.
In an apparent reference to Rahman Malik's act of making public the alleged agreement between PML-N leadership and former president Pervez Musharraf, he said that this was not a new but the same that had already been distributed in the house to malign his party leadership. Meanwhile Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah tabled in the House "The Career Structure for Health Personnel Bill, 2012."
The bill is aimed at regulating the appointments and the terms and conditions of service of health personnel, serving in the Federal Health Institutions. The minister also laid the Annual Report of Competition Commission of Pakistan for the financial year ending June 30, 2010.