ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi on Sunday met Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, requesting him to reconsider his party’s decision of not supporting the key bills regarding the tenure of the services chiefs and chairman joint chiefs of staff committee in the parliament.

The Chaudhry brothers, whose party is a coalition partner with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in Punjab and at the Centre, called on the JUI-F chief at his residence a day after he complained that the government had made no effort to take the opposition into confidence on the draft of the bills at any stage.

Talking to reporters after his meeting with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, Maulana Fazl, however, said that they had told the two PML-Q leaders that the JUI-F’s decision of not supporting the bills was final and that they were only discussing the option of voting against the bill or abstaining from the entire process.

Questioning the “undue haste” being shown by the government, the JUI-F chief said the Supreme Court had given six months for removing ambiguity in the laws and this time was sufficient to hold fresh elections in the country to let a “new and genuine assembly” do such an important and sensitive legislation.

PML-N parliamentary party to discuss issue today

The Maulana said he had told the PML-Q leaders that the decision of not supporting the bills had been made both by his party’s parliamentary group and Central Executive Committee.

The party was, however, yet to make a final decision whether its members would vote against the bills in the two houses of parliament or they would abstain from voting process, the JUI-F chief said.

Giving reasons for the party’s crucial decision, Maulana Fazl said the JUI-F believed that the current National Assembly was a product of “rigged” elections and it had no right to do such an important legislation.

He said all the opposition parties had rejected the results of elections held on July 25, 2018. Therefore, they cannot allow the “fake assembly” to enact laws on such an important national matter.

The Maulana said his party did not want to make the Army a controversial institution by dragging it into politics. On the other hand, he alleged, the “incompetent” PTI government had made the army and (Army Chief) Qamar Javed Bajwa controversial by inviting the Supreme Court’s intervention due to its failure to even draft a summary for the extension of the army chief.

The JUI-F leader was of the view that the way legislation was being done in haste would create more complications and generate more controversies.

The government had introduced three bills in the NA on Friday as per directives of the Supreme Court to remove ambiguity in laws and to provide legal grounds to the extension given to Gen Bajwa after the apex court suspended controversial notifications of the government in this regard last year.

The laws, once approved, will fix 64 years as maximum age limit of three services chiefs and the CJCSC with the prime minister having the prerogative to give an extension to any of them in future and the president having the power to give the final nod.

When contacted, PML-Q leader Kamil Ali Agha said the Maulana had told his party’s leaders that it was because of the “slackness” on the part of Opposition Leader and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif that the opposition parties had been unable to make a joint decision.

Mr Agha said Maulana Fazl had held Mr Sharif responsible for disunity in the opposition ranks.

He claimed that the negotiations with the JUI-F would continue and another meeting between the PML-Q leaders and the Maulana was expected soon.

The JUI-F chief during his media talk also endorsed Mr Agha’s viewpoint, saying he had talked to Shahbaz Sharif on telephone and registered his complaint about his failure in maintaining the unity in the opposition ranks, claiming that Mr Sharif had admitted his mistake.

Had the opposition leader taken an initiative of uniting all the opposition parties, the Maulana said, any political party having reservations over the government’s move might have found an excuse for supporting the bills on the ground that it was doing so for the sake of the opposition’s unity. He said being the opposition leader, it was the responsibility of Shahbaz Sharif to keep the opposition united.

The JUI-F leader said both the PML-N and Pakistan Peoples Party were holding talks with the government on the procedural matters “which is against the united stance of all the opposition parties”.

PML-N leader’s proposals

Meanwhile, PML-N vice-president and former defence minister Khurram Dastagir Khan told Dawn that he had suggested four amendments to the drafts of the bills moved by the government in the National Assembly.

Giving details, Mr Khan said he had proposed that the bills should also provide for powers and procedure for removing the services chiefs, besides making it compulsory for the prime minister to give in writing the reasons for granting extension to the services chiefs. Similarly, he has questioned the inclusion of the clause making the extension of the services chiefs unchallengeable in court of law and fixing 64 years as maximum age limit.

The PML-N leader, however, said he had submitted these suggestions to the party’s parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif who would move these amendments only after a nod from the party leadership.

He said a meeting of the PML-N parliamentary party had already been convened on Tuesday (tomorrow).

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2020