High tempers cloud today’s National Assembly session
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, April 14: Tempers are likely to run high in the National Assembly when the lower house meets on Tuesday with rival sides ready for wordy duels over the country’s most burning political controversy — presidential powers.
The session comes only days after President Pervez Musharraf emerged from a self-imposed isolation for months to hold a series of meetings with his political allies in an apparent move to urge them to defend him against his outspoken critics in parliament.
On the other hand, the opposition parties have vowed not to allow normal parliamentary proceedings until the government reaches a settlement with them over the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) that gives sweeping powers to Gen Musharraf.
The president had held meetings with the leaders of all major political parties to discuss national issues before he handed over the functions of the chief executive to Prime Minister Zafaraullah Khan Jamali in November as a result of Oct 10 general elections.
But this time the president met only the partners in the ruling coalition, which is led by Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam), for what seemed to be inspirational pep talks after they put up only a feeble defence against opposition’s noisy attacks against the LFO.
MOTIVATION TEST: The new session of the 342-seat National Assembly, due to begin at 5pm on Tuesday, will be a test of the motivation of the treasury benches to defend the LFO, which empowers Gen Musharraf to remain president and army chief for five more years, head an overseeing military-civilian National Security Council, dissolve parliament and sack prime ministers.
There was no indication yet if the president would also invite opposition leaders to try to soften their opposition to LFO, which is also holding up the convening of a mandatory joint session of both houses of parliament to be addressed by him.
Parliamentary groups of opposition parties — including the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) and Pakistan Muslim League-N — are due to meet on Tuesday before the start of the National Assembly session to chalk out their course of action.
“Our protest (against the LFO) will continue,” PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar told Dawn.
But he would not say what would be the form of the protest, which had brought the first regular session of the National Assembly in early March to a standstill after opposition members, chanting “no LFO no” and “go Musharraf go”, repeatedly besieged the rostrum and did not allow any proceedings to be conducted.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain had adjourned that session on March 10 to allow the treasury and opposition benches to iron out their differences on LFO, which also gives the president the previously prime ministerial powers to appoint armed forces chiefs and provincial governors who, in turn, can dissolve provincial assemblies and remove provincial chief ministers.
No compromise has happened so far and PML-Q’s contacts with only MMA leaders were seen by other opposition parties as attempts to divide the opposition.
Another session of the National Assembly requisitioned by opposition parties to discuss the Iraqi situation and LFO was abrupt prorogued by the speaker on March 19 for lack of quorum, after two days of a debate on Iraq but none on the LFO.
SENATE SESSION CALLED: Another opportunity for opposition parties to agitate on the LFO will be a Senate session summoned on Monday by upper house chairman Mohammedmian Soomro for Friday.
The session, to begin at 5pm on Friday, was requisitioned by opposition Senators earlier this month to discuss Pakistan’s security and economic concerns.
After latest meetings with the president, Prime Minister Jamali and some other ruling coalition members have warned of a possible dissolution of the National Assembly by the president if the opposition parties insisted on clipping the presidential powers.
But opposition spokesmen have dismissed the threats as hollow, saying the ruling coalition would lose more — both the assembly membership and governments in the centre and provinces.
