March 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 30, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 3: The opposition leaders on Monday asked speaker National Assembly to give his verdict whether the MNAs had taken oath according to the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) or the Constitution of 1973.

A leader of Pakistan People’s Party (Parliamentarians) Naheed Khan raised a point of order asking the speaker NA, Chaudhry Amir Hussain to clarify it that under which law the MNAs had taken their oath.

She said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, in a seminar at Lahore, had criticized the opposition leaders who opposed the LFO.

She said why the prime minister was not addressing the nation and tell about the LFO. “Has the prime minister been stopped to speak before the nation by the president,” she questioned.

Speaking on the issue another leader of the PPP (Parliamentarians), Naveed Qamar said the NA speaker had reserved the ruling on the issue and now he should give his verdict.

However, the NA speaker did not reply the point of order raised by the PPP.

The leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said the MNAs had so far not been provided the copies of the amended Constitution in which the LFO had been incorporated. “All MNAs must have a copy of the Constitution so that they should go through the LFO,” he said.

Sources from the National Assembly secretariat told Dawn that copies of the Constitution amended through the LFO by the President Musharraf were presented in bulk in the National Assembly.

The government perhaps for the tough stance taken by the opposition did not distribute these copies among the members of the National Assembly.

The bundles of these newly printed copies of the Constitution have been lying in the stores in the basement of the Parliament House and accumulating dust since October 22, the sources said.

The parliamentary sources disclosed that the copies of Constitution along with the rules and business of the NA are provided to the members at the inaugural session of the assembly before the election of speaker and deputy speaker after every general election.

In fact these documents are placed at the table of each and every member before the commencement of the inaugural session, a staffer of the NA said.

The newly printed copies of the Constitution were delivered by the Printing Corporation of Pakistan to National Assembly Secretariat on Oct 22, the day on which the government had first planned to convene the inaugural session which had been later postponed.

Former speaker National Assembly Illahi Buksh Somroo at the inaugural session of the National Assembly had showed an old copy of un-amended Constitution to the members of opposition when they had refused to take oath under the amended Constitution.

Only one fresh copy of the Constitution has been placed in the library of the National Assembly secretariat for the parliamentarians, the source said.

“In case of any reference, parliamentarians could consult the document available at the library, “ the source added.

The source said that a separate document of Legal Framework Order was not available with the National Assembly secretariat as it had been incorporated in the Constitution.