ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Political rivals in both houses of parliament put their mutual hostility aside on Monday to mourn the death of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.
Neither the National Assembly nor the Senate conducted any business as both the houses prayed for the departed soul before being adjourned.
While the National Assembly was adjourned until Tuesday morning, the Senate was prorogued by a presidential order after a 12-day session, a move the People’s Party Parliamentarians said was designed to avoid a private anti-treason bill on the agenda.
While no formal speeches were scheduled, an opposition member in the National Assembly managed to refer to former MNA Nawabzada Nasrullah’s latest role in opposing President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the Legal Framework Order.
MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed preceded the special prayer he was asked to lead with an oration about Nawabzada Nasrullah that was cut short by the Speaker.
The MMA leader spoke of Nawabzada Nasrullah’s opposition to what he called “absolute dictator” when the speaker stopped him before he could complete his sentence.
In the Senate, MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani led the prayer for Nawabzada Nasrullah on chairman Mohammedmian Soomro’s suggestion.
On a suggestion from PML Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, the upper house also prayed for the departed soul of veteran journalist H.K. Burki who died in Islamabad on Saturday.
BILL AVOIDED: Monday was a private members’ day for the Senate where the first item on the agenda was a bill that PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar would have moved to prescribe a punishment for treason.
Mr Babar said the government prorogued the Senate suddenly to “escape” his bill, which proposes, among other things, life-imprisonment for a person found guilty of high treason involving abrogation or subversion of the constitution by use of force or other unconstitutional means.
He told this correspondent that since no business was conducted on Monday, rules would have required the house to take up on Tuesday all that private members’ business, including his bill, which also proposes that a convict of high treason be deprived of all service ranks, benefits and national awards and named in “a national register of shame”.
