September 20, 2003	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Both houses of parliament resounded with noisy protests staged by opposition parties on Friday while anxiously awaiting a promised government package to resolve a constitutional crisis over sweeping presidential powers.

The opposition also walked out of the National Assembly and the Senate after desk-thumping and slogan-chanting, allowing treasury benches to carry on a routine business of questions and call-attention notices put on the day’s agenda for both the houses, which met briefly before being adjourned until Monday.

The opposition-less Senate seized the opportunity to pass a resolution unanimously and without debate expressing “full confidence” of the upper house in President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali before their planned visits to the United States later this month.

While some members on the treasury benches criticized the continuous opposition protests and walkouts, opposition parties threatened to take the issue of the Legal Framework Order (LFO) to streets if the government failed to settle the 11-month-old row over powers the controversial document gives the president.

There was no indication from the government in either house about when the prime minister will bring the package of constitutional amendments for which he had asked two more days after his crucial talks with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Tuesday night.

“That deadline expired yesterday,” an MMA spokesman said after the opposition walkout from the National Assembly as parties in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, which boycotted what it called “non-serious” parleys with the government, urged the MMA to now consider taking the issue directly to the people.

Sources in the ARD, which includes the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, said there seemed little chance of the package coming before the US visits by the president from Sept 21 to 24 mainly to address the UN General Assembly and by the prime minister later for talks with US authorities.

The Senate resolution, moved by a back-bencher of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Dr Shehzad Waseem, voiced “full support” for the policies of President Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali, assured them full cooperation and prayed for the success of their US trips.

The move, which was not listed on the printed agenda for the day, was a repeat of similar resolutions passed by both houses of parliament last June during a four-nation Western trip by Gen Musharraf when the opposition had questioned his right to speak for the country as a military president.

Opposition members started thumping their desks and chanting “go Musharraf go” and “no LFO no” at the start of the morning proceedings in the National Assembly and the Senate and followed it up with walkouts.

But the opposition members in the National Assembly also broke the quorum of the lower house twice by withdrawing from the hall, leading to a suspension of the proceedings as counts showed the required one-fourth, or 86, of the total 342 members were not present.

The opposition members came back after the house attained the quorum and resumed their noisy protest.

However, the proceedings went on smoothly after the opposition members finally walked out chanting slogans “unconstitutional president unacceptable”, “fake president unacceptable”.

The adjournment of the National Assembly until 5.30pm and of the Senate until 7pm on Monday put at rest earlier speculations sparked by the president’s sudden summoning of the Senate on Wednesday that he might address a joint sitting of parliament before leaving for the United States on Saturday.

A presidential address to a joint sitting is constitutionally mandatory for the start of a parliamentary year but it has not been done in the case of the present parliament because of the protests against the LFO, which opposition parties have rejected.