NUML episode (contd)

PML-N to confront govt on crucial issues in parliament

* Party to take up law and order, price hike, power outages, Dr Aafia’s conviction

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has decided to give the government a tough time in the National Assembly and Senate over certain issues, including law and order, price hike and power outages.

The party has submitted adjournment motions on the hike in electricity tariff and the law and order situation in Karachi and PML-N lawmakers said they would confront the government on its failure to control price hike and maintaining law and order in the country. The other issues, which the party would raise in the upper and lower houses, include the controversial conviction of Dr Aafia Siddiqui by a US court. It would also present its views on India’s recent offer of dialogue with Pakistan. Sources in the PML-N said the Asian Development Bank’s report on the rental power plants would also be discussed.

PML-N MNA Abid Sher Ali said he had submitted an adjournment motion regarding an incident in the National University of Modern Languages where one of its professors, Tahir Malik, was roughed up by NUML Registrar Brig (r) Obaidullah Ranjha after an argument. He said his party would also present an adjournment motion against an increase in petroleum prices. “The government’s corruption in the rental power plants, pointed out by the Asian Development Bank, will be taken up by the PML-N,” Sher Ali added.

Anusha Rahman, another PML-N lawmaker, said her party had also submitted an adjournment motion against the electricity price hike. Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah said the upcoming Senate session would be an intense one as the nation faced several complex issues due to the government’s “incompetence”.