PESHAWAR, Nov 25: The maiden session of the Frontier Assembly was held here on Monday at which 120 MPAs-elect were sworn in, ushering in a new era of what some members described as controlled democracy.
At the outset the House, dominated by MMA’s legislators, strongly criticized the military rulers for changing the spirit of the 1973 Constitution.
As the House was called to order, Abdul Akbar Khan, a former speaker and parliamentary leader of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, set the pace of the session by opening up a brief debate on the legality of the constitution under which MPAs-elect were to take the oath. He brought two different copies of the constitution, the original and the amended ones, with him and showed them to the House, seeking their opinion on the Legal Framework Order.
He waved the original copy of the constitution in the air and urged the members to take the oath under this (original) constitution and put aside the amended one. “We have seen duplicity of things and people but never heard about duplicity of constitution. The military dictators introduced two constitutions at the same time to hoodwink the nation”, he said with disdain.
Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the Awami National Party endorsed the views of Mr Akbar and sought the opinion of the presiding officer on whether they were going to take the oath under the LFO-inserted constitution or the Constitution which was in force before October 1999.
Rising on a point of order, Sirajul Haq of the MMA said the House was convinced that the LFO was an encroachment upon the original Constitution of 1973, and added: “We undo it, we don’t accept it at all”. He asked his fellow members to proceed cautiously and save this House from one more blow.
Former speaker Hidayatullah Chamkani, who presided over the opening session and later administered the oath to the MPAs-elect, assured them that they would be sworn in under the articles of the non-amended 1973 Constitution.
When Chamkani started reading out the oath, the members didn’t follow him and instead read it out at one go. It was giving a look of a high school classroom rather than the assembly hall.
Anwar Kamal Marwat of the PML-N drew the attention of the chair towards this and sought a fresh oath, but the presiding officer told him that they all had taken the oath.
The House prayed, on a point of order raised by Mujahid Khan of the MMA, for Aimal Kasi, who was tried and executed in the US for murdering two CIA agents in Langley, Maryland, Washington, in 1993.
Zar Gul from Kala Dhaka (Mansehra) asked the chair to clear the position of women members whose presence was a creation of the LFO. “Will the women members be automatically unseated, when the LFO is rejected?” he asked.
Later, 120 MPAs, including 22 women, put their signatures, one by one, on the roll-call register. The women elected on reserved seats had been allotted an enclave on both sides of the speaker’s podium. Only Ghazala Habib, who contested on a general seat from Mansehra, sat with the male members.
Kashif Azam of the MMA requested the House to pray for Fiyyaz Khan Khalil, Nazim of Pishtkhara union council, who, according to him, was killed by the police on Sept 16. He informed the House that the police were providing protection to the killers of Mr Khalil, who were staying in the Police Club.
Anwar Kamal of the PML-N drew the attention of the presiding officer towards the forcible occupation of the MPA Hostel by the National Accountability Bureau’s regional branch. He said he wanted to convey to the government through the speaker that the continuing occupation by the NAB of the place meant for the elected members was posing problems for the MPAs.
In the present House of 124 members, there are 15 old faces. They are: Malik Zafar Azam, Maulana Asmatullah, Akram Durrani and Pir Mohammad Khan (MMA), Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur, Dr Salim and Shazada Gushtasap (Independent), Syed Murid Kazim, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Shad Mohammad Khan (PPP-S), Iftikhar Khan Jhagra and Abdul Akbar Khan (PPP), Bashir Ahmed Bilour (ANP), Wajihuz Zaman (PML-Q) and Anwar Kamal Khan (PML-N).
Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, who preferred to retain his National Assembly seat, and Akhtar Khan Nawaz, who was elected as independent MPA but later joined the MMA, did not attend. Sardar Gandapur, who won two seats, will retain one seat and quit the other one. The decision on one seat for minorities has yet to be taken.
PESHAWAR, Nov 25: The maiden session of the Frontier Assembly was held here on Monday at which 120 MPAs-elect were sworn in, ushering in a new era of what some members described as controlled democracy.
