November 17, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 11, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: The first session of the National Assembly was held on Saturday in which 324 MNAs-elect took the oath, heralding the dawn of a new era of democracy after three years of military rule.

The session started amidst a brief uproar by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmad to be followed by Javed Hashmi of the PML-N and Syed Naveed Qamar of the PPP. They said their MNAs would take the oath only under the 1973 Constitution and not under the Legal Framework Order.

The former Speaker of the National Assembly, Illahi Bakhsh Soomro, who later administered the oath to the MNAs, assured them that they would be sworn in under the 1973 Constitution and there was no confusion about that. He showed to the members the relevant clauses of the Constitution for taking the oath.

“There has been no change in the wording of the oath of members. Therefore, there is no need to be worried about,” he declared.

A majority of the members welcomed the announcement by Mr Soomro, who was acting as the presiding officer, by thumping their desks.

Election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held on Tuesday for which nomination papers will be received up to 12 noon on Monday.

When Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and Rao Sikandar Iqbal of the PPP’s forward bloc were called to put their signatures on the register, some of the members shouted “lota, lota”.

Mr Soomro congratulated the members on their election and the restoration of democracy after three years. He said people had great expectations from them and hoped they would perform in a better way.

The presiding officer called upon the members to keep personal interest aside and work for strengthening democracy and prove to the world that people of Pakistan always looked for democracy. All the members thumped their desks when he stated: “Parliament is a supreme body and everything flows from this august House”.

The newly-renovated hall of the National Assembly was jampacked as more seats were brought in to accommodate 125 additional members, including 60 women members and 10 representatives of minorities.

The increased strength of the National Assembly is 342, but only 324 of them were present to take the oath. Some of the members who had also won their provincial election did not take the oath as members of the National Assembly. Seven members were elected from two constituencies each; at least one member was out of the country and the election result from one constituency is still awaited.

Seven members who were elected from more than one seats and took the oath were Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Aitzaz Ahsan, Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Sardar Asif Nakai. They were the first ones to be invited to sign the Roll of the Members.

The session, which was convened at 11am, was delayed by about half an hour during which the MNAs kept meeting each other.

PML-Q’s parliamentary party leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was prominent in seeing his party colleagues. He especially met Mr Hayat, the leader of the PPP’s forward bloc.

Provincial governors, services chiefs and diplomats witnessed the proceedings of the National Assembly which, due to the condition of graduation for the MNAs, is said to be the only all-graduate national assembly in Asia.