June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, June 27: A sensational drama will be on the cards when the National Assembly meets on Saturday to decide on an opposition no-confidence move against its speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain that he seems sure to survive.

But the final vote on the lower house speaker’s fate would be a one-sided affair as the majority ruling coalition has decided to abstain from voting by secret ballot.

Parliamentary sources said the opposition move to punish the speaker for a ruling to uphold the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) and a likely acrimonious debate on the issue was bound to impair his position as the custodian of the 342-seat lower house.

Despite the predictable outcome of the vote, Friday’s assembly session, due to begin at 11am, is likely to produce a lot of political heat because of the rival plans announced by the opposition and the ruling coalition. The latter sees the no-trust move as a ploy to embarrass the government when President Pervez Musharraf is on an important four-nation trip.

The combined opposition, which includes the PPP, the MMA, the PML-N and their smaller regional allies, has planned a march by about 150 of its assembly members to the parliament building from the nearby parliamentary lodges.

In a move designed to keep other opposition activists from joining, the government has said it will allow only the assembly members to march.

The ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, has said that though it would not take part in the secret ballot on a resolution seeking the speaker’s removal, its members would at some stage stand up in their seats to show their support for him.

But it was not yet clear whether the treasury members would take part in the debate.

The house must first decide on the admissibility of the opposition motion for leave to move the resolution seeking the speaker’s removal.

The motion, a notice for which was given to the assembly secretary by 11 opposition members on June 20, must be endorsed by at least 86 members — one-fourth of the total membership — by rising in their seats before a resolution can b e moved for a debate.

The assembly’s rules of procedure and conduct of business allow at least 30 minutes each to the resolution’s movers and the speaker to speak in the debate and a maximum 15 minutes each to other members.

The voting on the resolution must be held by secret ballot, which the ruling coalition says is not necessary for its members to join, throwing a challenge to the opposition parties to prove their one-time claim that they would secure a 172-seat majority for the success of their move.

Both sides have claimed secret support of many members of the other side while opposition parties accuse the ruling coalition of deciding to boycott the vote to spare itself the embarrassment of its members voting against the speaker.

It was also unclear if speaker Amir Hussain — who cannot preside over the session while it discusses the resolution for his removal — will speak to defend himself against what is likely to be a biting opposition tirade.

Under the rule, the session cannot take any business other than the no-trust move.

Amid heightened tensions between the two sides over the Legal Framework Order, opposition parties have rejected a last-minute appeal by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to withdraw their move against the speaker.

The ruling and opposition parties continued their separate meetings till late on Friday evening and were likely to fine-tune their tactics for the session before its start on Saturday morning.

The opposition camp will also be keenly awaiting a timely return of MMA parliamentary leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and another alliance member of the assembly, Maulana Ghafoor Haideri, after a short trip to France to attend an Islamic conference there.

The departure of two men for Paris in the early hours of Wednesday had sparked speculation about whether they would miss the no-confidence debate.

But another MMA leader in the assembly, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said the two men would return before the start of the assembly session.

The move against speaker Amir Hussain comes 17 years after then National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhr Imam was ousted by a similar move backed by then military president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq.

Mr Imam had earned the ire of Gen Zia-ul-Haq for sending to the Election Commission a reference that sought disqualification of then prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo and some of his colleague for forming a political party after being elected to parliament in a non-party election held in 1985.

Now, the opposition parties accuse Mr Hussain of giving the ruling under government pressure to give President Musharraf an additional argument to defend the LFO during his visit to Britain, the United States, France and Germany.

The speaker denies this and says he has given a ruling that had been pending for a long time after some opposition members had questioned his pro-LFO statement to reporters in November.