ISLAMABAD: An ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif warned on Wednesday of dangerous plots that ranged from trapping the military in an ill-conceived fight with the Taliban to the establishment of a regime of technocrats, after a noisy opposition protest in the National Assembly against extending a controversial anti-terrorism decree.

There was no immediate response from either the government or the opposition to the fears voiced by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, chief of the Pakhthunkhwa Milli Awami Party, although one minister had accused the opposition earlier of holding the government back rather than “guiding us” when new leaders were to take power in neighbouring India and Afghanistan.

Claiming to take an independent line despite being a government ally, the PkMAP leader appeared to agree with Railways Minister Saad Rafique’s grouse against the opposition, when he said: “If they had the slightest realisation of the crossroads Pakistan is standing on, they would have talked of nothing but how to save it.” Mr Achakzai was referring to the opposition members who had spoken before him and had criticised the government.

His warning — including his fear that some “international powers” might be setting a trap for Pakistan’s military while the situation in Balochistan and Karachi was already bad — came during a debate on the law and order situation in the country.

It is noteworthy that three days earlier the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) held a big rally in Islamabad to protest alleged rigging in last year’s general elections while simultaneous rallies were held in other cities by Pakistan Awami Tehreek whose leader, Allama Tahirul Qadri, called for a “revolution”.

Mr Rafique had accused the opposition of picking up non-issues and rejected Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s claim that the government’s peace dialogue with the Taliban was dead, saying: “The dialogue process with Taliban, falling or rising, is moving ahead.”

But Mr Achakzai said “it seems” a decision had been taken to launch strikes against the Taliban, although he advised the government not to do it without consulting the Afghan authorities. He said that in his opinion, such a fight might not be needed at all if the new government in Kabul could make peace with the Afghan Taliban.

Calling the situation in Pakistan “dangerous”, he referred to what he said was talk of “a government of technocrats for about three years” on the pretext that the present set-up was not delivering.

Mr Achakzai said the present parliament would be Pakistan’s last if any attempt was made to tamper with it and “if we also did not adopt the right attitudes”.

Speaking of a possible way to prevent such a situation, he urged the prime minister to call all generals and other stakeholders and make it clear that decisions would be taken by politicians.

Then touching upon the controversy of who could have fired the six shots that wounded Hamid Mir of Geo television channel in Karachi on April 19, Mr Achakzai appeared to absolve the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of any blame.

He said “our agencies” were not so inefficient as to “not take the right aim” and “no lawyer in Pakistan will be able to save” the channel from the consequence of the way it had reported the incident for hours.

Furore over ordinance

A furore began in the house quite early in the day when Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid, who was standing in for Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, tried to move a resolution to extend the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, 2014 for another 120 days.

The ordinance, due to expire on May 22, was the second of two presidential decrees of the same name promulgated on Oct 9, 2013 and Jan 22, 2014, with the professed aim to strengthen legal procedures to fight and prosecute terrorists.

While the first, and main, ordinance was extended through a resolution passed by the National Assembly in February, the two were incorporated in one bill that the government bulldozed thou­gh the assembly last month but it got stuck in the Senate.

Mr Hamid insisted on the resolution, which was put to vote just as the opposition walked out.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2014