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Opp to requisite NA if joint session not convened: Nisar

* Opposition leader criticises Zardari’s US visit, says parliament’s role being undermined

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan on Monday demanded the government convene a joint session of parliament after Eid to devise a national policy on terrorism.

He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would otherwise requisite the session of the lower house of parliament.

“We have decided in principle that the PML-N will requisite the NA session if the government does not convene a joint session after Eid,” he said in a news conference at Punjab House.

Criticism: Khan expressed his concerns about President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to the United States and feared that parliament’s role in devising national policies would be undermined again.

“It would have been better had Zardari convened a joint session of parliament to frame a national policy on fighting terrorism before visiting the US. It seems now that he will impose the US policy here,” he said.

The opposition leader said that there was a need to mobilise the nation through a ‘made in Pakistan’ policy against terrorism.

Nisar expressed his concerns on behalf of the entire nation over President Zardari’s statements following his last week meeting with US president George Bush.

He severely criticised the statement that President Bush’s policies had made the world a more secure place to live. The PML-N parliamentary leader said the financial aid being pledged by the US and ‘Friends of Pakistan’ conference would again throw the country into the clutches of the International Monetary Fund, adding that they would now set more conditions for Pakistan to ‘do more’ in the war on terror.

He said that he had doubts that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led government would give up the policies practiced by former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf.

Khan also spoke about Pakistan’s relations with Iran, saying the government was ignoring Tehran that had always helped Islamabad in difficult times.

To a question about the political scenario in Punjab, he said it has been agreed that the PPP will remain in the provincial government for the time being. However, he warned that any destabilisation of Punjab government would ultimately result in the destabilisation in the Centre as well.

He said the first meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the NA would be held on October 7 to define the committee’s objectives.

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