Islamabad -The opposition benches in the Senate on Thursday condemned the PML-N led federal government for not taking the Parliament into confidence regarding Pakistan’s role in Doha talks between the US and Taliban leaders on the peace process and sought an explanation on the issue.
The opposition benches including PPP, PML-Q, ANP, MQM also staged a token walkout from the upper house against the recent hike in power tariff by Rs 1.12 per unit by the newly elected federal government in addition to power outages that has made the life of the masses miserable.
Senatore Mian Raza Rabbani, the parliamentary leader of PPP in the Senate, on a point of order criticized the Leader of the House in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq for what he termed backtracking from his commitment earlier he made to brief the House on Pakistan’s role in Doha peace talks. Rabbani said that the Leader of the House was showing his reluctance to give us the exact timing and date when the government would brief the house about this issue that was very significant in nature.
However, Raja Zafarul Haq said that the dialogue was at its early stage and they should adopt a careful policy because Afghan President Hamid Karzai did not look comfortable and added that he would arrange a briefing to the house over the issue. He was it was too early to brief the house but Rabbani was not ready to accept the argument.
“It seems that Leader of the House has changed his mind after consulting with the bureaucrat who has been appointed as PM Advisor on Foreign Affairs,” he argued.
PML-Q senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that the local press had already made public Pakistan’s role in peace talks and showed his astonishment saying why US Secretary of State John Kerry has cancelled his expected visit to Pakistan and preferred to visit India though Pakistan was a major stakeholder in the issue..  Earlier, Mian Raza Rabbani pointed out that recent hike in power tariff was the third one increase in the last ten days since PML-N led federal government took over. He then staged a token walked out from the house over the issue of increase in power tariff and continuous power outages and the opposition lawmakers also followed him.
Taking part in the debate on the finance bill 2013-14, PPP lawmaker Saleem H. Mandviwala said that ten percent increase in the salaries of the government employees did not meet the rate of increase in inflation. He also criticized the policy to give access to the FBR officers to the bank accounts of citizens and viewed this would lose the confident of people on state owned organizations.
On a point of order, Senator Farhatullah Babar took strong exception to the remarks of a SC judge made during hearing in a suo moto case y that the BISP had made the people beggars and that the funds should have been allocated to WAPDA. He asked judges to respect their limits reiterating also that a Constitutional Court as envisaged in the Charter of Democracy be set up. Remarks like these by the judges do not enhance the prestige and dignity of the courts, he said adding that the dignity of the courts could not be upheld through resort to contempt law alone. Dignity that is sought through coercive means and not through judgments and above board conduct is fragile, he also said.