ISLAMABAD: The opposition in two houses of Parliament will develop combined strategy to raise the tragic incident on Lahore motorway where a lady was gang raped in presence of her children at midnight and police have failed in tracing the offenders.
The sitting of the National Assembly is commencing on Monday while the Senate will be in session a day after. The opposition will demand immediate removal of controversial Lahore Police chief and annul the recent changes in Punjab Police that have caused indiscipline in the ranks of police.
The government is keen to undertake legislation in the upcoming sittings of the Parliament for the sake of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), but the opposition has planned not to allow the treasury to take up any business other than the heinous offence, which was committed in Lahore, and similar incidents in other parts of the country, before transacting any other business.
The opposition is of the view that the deadline indicated to the opposition by the government for FATF-specific legislation has lapsed. The FATF will take up the question of keeping or otherwise Pakistan on the grey list next month. Well-placed diplomatic sources told The News here Friday that Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif would also attend the upcoming session of his House as he has discussed the horrible incidents with his opposition colleagues from the PPP, JUI-F and other groups.
Likewise, Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq has discussed with other parliamentary group leaders including Sherry Rehman (PPP), Mushahidullah Khan (PML-N), Maulana Attaur Rehman (JUI-F), Sirajul Haq (JI), Usman Khan Kakar (PkMAP) to form strategy about the deplorable incidents. The sources pointed out the female members of the Parliament belonging to government are siding with the agitation against Lahore’s condemnable incident. The sources said the government has planned to bring a resolution in the National Assembly for referral of two bills to the joint sitting of the Parliament which were passed by the National Assembly, but Senate had rejected the both consequently. The Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Waqf Properties Bill were rejected by Senate late last month through a voice vote after the opposition linked its cooperation to retraction of Leader of House Senator Dr Waseem Shehzad’s remarks and an apology by him and the government side accused the opposition of trying to blackmail it. With the permission of the National Assembly, both the bills will be put up in the joint sitting of the Parliament mid next week since the government is keen to get the two part of the book at the earliest. The opposition has been opposing the bills due to their capacity for victimising and witch-hunting of the government opponents.
Meanwhile, sources said the government has also made up its mind to extend the enforcement period of presidential ordinance pertaining to legislation for facilitating Indian terrorist-cum-spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to engage a lawyer in accordance to the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ordinance has been referred to the committee concerned for consideration, but its validity would expire in a couple of days. Kulbhushan who was running a network of terrorists for subverting activities across Pakistan was arrested red-handed and he was handed down death sentence by a special court of the land. The Indian terrorist is a serving officer of armed forces and he is being offered opportunity to submit an appeal in the court against the verdict of the special court. The sources said that the government is also mulling to bring more legislation in the National Assembly in the next sitting. The agenda for the session would be made public today (Saturday), the sources added.
