- Pursuit of skin-deep bonhomie
With the government announcing a hefty rise in the petroleum and LPG prices and reports about flour also becoming costlier, the opposition had reasons to target the government’s performance in both National Assembly and Senate. The Prime Minister’s absence from both Houses, despite an earlier assurance that he would attend the Senate sitting, provided another casus belli to the opposition. The opposition contended that the recently promulgated NAB Ordinance leaving the business community and bureaucracy out of the purview of NAB, and the holy cows allowed as before to be judged by their respective institutions, NAB’s role has been confined only to target politicians. An opposition member suggested that under the circumstances the parliamentarians too should be held accountable only by Parliament. To many the logic behind the demand would appear to be unassailable
The opposition also criticised the government for its casual attitude towards Parliament including its flouting of parliamentary regulations and traditions. The government, it was pointed out, had stalled the Senate session for nearly four months ignoring the opposition’s demands to convene it. The government then suddenly called both Houses into session, with the news reaching the parliamentarians through media rather than through proper notification, making it difficult for many to reach Islamabad amidst delayed flights due to exceptionally cold and smoggy weather.
The government is fond of making laws through presidential ordinances rather than through parliamentary proceedings. Dire necessity forced it this time to seek the opposition’s help on three legislative measures that can only be passed by Parliament, that is, the issues related to the tenure and extension in service of the COAS, the new NAB law and the appointment of EC members and the Chief Election Commissioner. Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry acted like the government’s cheerleader when NAB persecuted PML-N and PPP leaders. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, he supports reducing NAB’s powers and wants the merger of NAB and FIA into a single premier agency. Again he has suddenly converted to the need for government and opposition to join hands on a minimum agenda, the three issues that led the government to convene the sessions of the two Houses post-haste. Actions taken out of necessity, rather than for their innate importance, deserve little credit.
