All parties unanimous on NA monitoring of war on terror

ISLAMABAD - Although the Speaker National Assembly Dr Fahmida Mirza got down to business for early constitution of the Parliamentary Committee to monitor Pakistan's role in war on terror and to come up with suggestions when and where required, it is still a long way to go as the government is facing difficulties in taking some of its coalition partners along not to speak of the people sitting on the Opposition benches.

Sources privy to the developments taking place on this front disclosed to The Nation that in principle no Parliamentary party was against the idea of constitution of a Parliamentary Committee to monitor the ongoing war on terror and country's role in it.

The decision in this connection was taken after the long in-camera briefing given to the Parliamentarians on the government's policy regarding  the issue and the resolution adopted unanimously after the briefing besides other things the Parliamentary Committee also suggested formation of the Parliamentary Committee to monitor the country's role in the ongoing war on terror.

Almost a week ago Speaker National Assembly started holding meetings with the Parliamentary leaders of various parties and the consultation was in progress and would likely be completed in another week or so.

The sources in the Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) disclosed to The Nation that Dr Fahmida Mirza had also held a detailed meeting with Ch Nisar Ali Khan, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and PML(N) Parliamentary Leader.

During the meeting they discussed the formation of the Parliamentary Committee and its ambit of work. The sources disclosed that PML(N) leader suggested that the size of the committee should be kept small, but  did not give the name of the PML(N) representative to the committee.

The sources in the PML(N) disclosed that the name of the PML(N) member would be given after consultation with the party leadership and the consultation process would take some time.

The sources further disclosed that Dr Fahmida Mirza had also discussed the matter with the leaders of other Parliamentary parties and the first round of consultations was complete.

It was further disclosed by the sources in the ruling alliance that Pakistan Peoples Party was facing some difficulties in managing the affairs with some of its coalition partners which had direct bearing on the formation of this committee and the other Parliamentary Committees including the one President had promised to do away with the 17th Constitutional Amendment, 58(2)b and other controversial matters.

The sources further said that Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam lead by Maulana Fazlur Rehman was having serious differences with the Pakistan Peoples Party regarding allocation of portfolios in the Federal Cabinet and number of ministers.

Some of the sources privy to JUI(F) said that PPP was backing out of what they had committed to them and their demands regarding their share in the Federal Cabinet were ignored by the government and that was the reason JUI(F) had not taken their share in the second phase of the Cabinet expansion.

The sources in the coalition government disclosed to The Nation that JUI(F) had also demanded the governorship of Balochistan and actually the matter of discord  was not the share in the Cabinet or the portfolios of choice but the governorship of Balochistan which the PPP leadership was not ready to dole out to the Maulana from D I Khan.

Similarly, PPP also facing difficulty with negotiating with the MQM and the disagreement on share of the Cabinet slots and portfolios forced MQM to stay out of the Federal Cabinet.

In these circumstances without appeasing MQM and JUI(F), it would become extremely difficult for the Pakistan Peoples Party to have a smooth sailing in running the Parliamentary affairs.

The sources further disclosed that now Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza would discuss the whole situation with President Asif Ali Zardari on his return from  Saudi Arabia how to deal with the complexity of the issue of formation of the Parliamentary Committee to deal with the matters relating to ongoing war on terror and Paksitan's role in it.