ISLAMABAD, April 15: Protesting opposition parties on Tuesday blocked the start of the National Assembly session over the sweeping presidential powers after Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali warned the opposition of a collapse of the system.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the session until Friday after opposition’s chants against the president and the Legal Framework Order prevented any proceedings to be held.
Chanting “no LFO no” and “go Musharraf go”, opposition members twice besieged the rostrum before and after a break for Maghreb prayers, ignoring the speaker’s call for order.
While an afternoon drizzle brought back chill to the capital after some hot days, the National Assembly seemed seething with tension between the rival political camps.
But the treasury benches made no attempt to counter the opposition shouting, except a brief desk-thumping to cheer the arrival of Mr Jamali, who issued his warning and urged opposition to avoid confrontation in a speech to the ruling coalition.
Minutes later, the speaker accused the opposition of failing to maintain the decorum of the house and adjourned the session until 10.30am on Friday.
Parliamentary groups of opposition parties — the People’s Party Parliamentarians, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and their smaller regional allies — met separately and together before the session and decided to continue the mode of their anti-LFO protest.
Opposition spokesmen said they had decided to carry on their protest because the government had failed to come to understanding over the LFO, which empowers Gen Musharraf to continue as president and army chief for five more years, head the National Security Council, dissolve parliament and sack prime ministers.
But an official statement quoted Mr Jamali as accusing the opposition parties of not reciprocating what he called “a great deal of flexibility and a sense of accommodation” shown by the government.
“If the system collapses, all of us will be plunged into political wilderness,” the prime minister said, echoing the warning he gave last week that opposition’s insistence to clip the president of his powers could lead to the dissolution of the National Assembly.
The ruling coalition parties played cool on Tuesday, contrary to earlier speculation that they would come out strongly to defend the LFO after inspirational meetings with President Musharraf last week.
The opposition members began chanting “no LFO no” as soon as the speaker began reading names of a panel of chairmen — who could preside over the session in his absence — after the usual recitation from the holy Quran.
But the speaker appeared undaunted and went ahead even with reading leave applications sent by several members for their absence from the house.
The shouting stopped briefly after a PPP member from Badin, Ghulam Ali Nizamani, collapsed at his desk because of an epileptic fit, but resumed after the patient was sent to hospital.
The speaker’s call to Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Chaudhry Noraiz Shakoor to make a statement — possibly to announce a cut in prices of petroleum products decided earlier in the day — failed to materialize because of the shouting.
Amid renewed shouting after the prayer break, Salim Jan Mazari of the National Alliance, a PML-Q ally, was hardly audible after the speaker allowed him to read out a motion against some police action.
Mr Jamali’s arrival only made the opposition shouts louder, which finally forced the adjournment of the house.
JAMALI’S CALLS: In his speech to the meeting of PML-Q parliamentary party and its allies earlier, the prime minister urged opposition parties to avoid what he called a policy of confrontation.
A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat quoted him as saying it would be “a real test of the political sagacity, wisdom and acumen of parliamentarians as to how they resolve differences on the issue amicably in the larger interest of democracy and democratic institutions”.
The prime minister urged the opposition to realize its responsibility with regard to continuity of the democratic system and not be carried away by “empty rhetoric and hollow slogan-mongering”.
“Still there is time to sit together and sort out the differences as in politics, dialogue and discussions are considered standard mode of resolving differences,” he said.
The statement also quoted PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as saying it was “high time to sink our differences to save the system” and think of the well-being of people.
It said Dr Sher Afgan Niazi of the PPPP-Patriots and various other members had explained the “legal and technical implications of scrapping the LFO”.
But opposition parties say they will now negotiate with the government together over the LFO, which will also come into focus in the Senate when the upper house meets on Friday at 5pm for a session requisitioned by the opposition to discuss the country’s security and economic concerns.
