ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE – The concerted efforts undertaken by the government on Monday, a day ahead of the president’s address to the joint sitting of parliament, remained fruitful to the extent that no opposition party announced boycott of the session, all of them remaining undecided and divided on the issue. The divided opposition failed to devise a joint strategy for the president’s address until Monday with some looking towards the others and some not remained firm on their earlier decisions.
The JUI-F parliamentary party, which met on Monday with its chief Fazlur Rehman in the chair, remained undecided on how to behave during the president’s address.
“We discussed the agenda (of the president’s address) in detail to choose whether to keep smooth and listen the address, desk thumping and chanting slogans such as ‘Go Zardari Go’, present our point of view on national issues or completely boycott the session,” JUI-F Secretary General Abdul Ghafoor Haideri told reporters after the parliamentary party meeting.
However, being undecided, he suggested that the joint opposition in the National Assembly should meet today (Tuesday) to reach a unanimous decision vis-a-vis the president’s address.
“We are in contact with the opposition parties. The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Nisar Ali Khan had also contacted the JUI-F chief and discussed the strategy for the address and the opposition parties can meet any time tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said. Haideri made it clear that they would make a decision along with rest of the opposition parties. Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani called on the JUI-F chief to seek his party’s support during President Zardari’s address. On the other hand, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Salim Saifullah separately contacted Fazl to discuss the strategy for the president’s address.
To a question, Haideri asked the army chief to fulfill his constitutional responsibility of defending the borders of the country. “The army should come into action and hit down the drones,” he demanded.
On the other hand, the PML-N will also chalk out its final strategy regarding the presidential address in a parliamentary party meeting today (Tuesday). However, a party leader seeking not to be named said it was decided that the party would not create rumpus in the House. “The PML-N MNAs can attend the sitting wearing black bands. They can also stage a token walk out without creating mess, and can in the extreme condition, boycott the presidential address but they will not turn the House into a pandemonium that might create trouble for President Zardari,” the source said.
Separately, the PML-Q president told the government team, including federal ministers Khurshid Shah, Naveed Qamar and Rehman Malik on Monday that the final decision regarding his party’s boycott of the presidential address would be taken in PML-Q’s parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday (today). “Shujaat told the PPP men that the government had provided no relief to its leaders, including Ghous Bukhsh Mehar, Moonis Elahi and Ameer Muqam despite President Zardari’s commitments which he made in his meeting with the PML-Q delegation a few days ago,” said a source, adding that the PPP leaders said that boycotting the presidential address would ma
r democratic traditions in the country.
The source said the PPP ministers assured PML-Q leaders that the government would redress their grievances. “The PPP central leaders said that they too had advised their party’s central command to do a power-sharing deal with the PML-Q and shun the politics of reconciliation with the PML-N,” said the source. The only party to have decided to attend the joint session was the MQM, with its parliamentary leader in National Assembly Farooq Sattar telling reporters that the MQM had decided to attend the joint parliamentary session despite some reservations.
