Opposition has asked that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to withdraw his statement made a few days ago in the National Assembly about the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, because "it could be used as charge-sheet" against Pakistan."
Speaking on a point of order, leader of the opposition Nisar Ali Khan said Prime Minister's statement could be considered as a charge-sheet against the country in international court or any other forum. The opposition leader said the prime minister should clarify the matter or the presiding officer should be asked to expunge prime minister's controversial remarks from the proceedings of the National Assembly.
Nisar also spoke in detail on the prevailing gas and electricity shortages and turned down the offer by the government to refer the matter to the opposition-led parliamentary committee to investigate energy crisis within fifteen days. He said that the opposition did not want to involve itself in yet another committee because its bitter experience told it that not a single decision of numerous committees constituted during the last four years had been implemented. The opposition leader regretted that all weaknesses and flaws of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were now being tied to the Parliament.
Nisar said that the opposition would defer its decision whether it should lunch protest against the on-going load shedding of gas in the country till it examined fact-sheet which he asked the government to submit to the Opposition by Monday. "We would request the government to provide us a facts sheet, consisting of total gas availability, requirement as well as the shortage along with justification supported by the facts that led to such a severe crisis during the last two years," he said.
The issue of gas shortage echoed in the parliament during the last two days with complaint by both coalition and opposition members. Nisar also demanded of the government to replace the petroleum minister with a politician. Nisar also strongly criticised the statement purportedly made by the Minister for Petroleum that all compressors would have to be shut down if the CNG stations were not closed by next month.
Nisar said that his party was not in favour of CNG stations closure, if such a proposal was floated by any member from the opposition, it could be that particular member's personal view. Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah suggested, in response to the opposition leader's speech, that a parliamentary committee, headed by opposition members, should be constituted within two weeks' time to find out the actual reasons behind the energy crisis.
The Minister said that the country would have sufficient gas if a stay order was not granted in 2010 against gas reserves of 300 million cubic feet at Kunar, Sindh, and LNG import had not gone into litigation and consequently delayed due to an article carried on a newspaper. The House also passed 'Carriage by Air Bill 2011'.
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