ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The ruling coalition outshouted opposition in the Senate on Monday as the government neared finalazing a deal with one of the two opposition alliances to settle the year- long row over the Legal Framework Order.

Opposition parties usually had the upper hand in shouting to fire up their prolonged anti-LFO protests in parliament in November 2002.

But it was the government’s turn on Monday when a noisy resistance from ruling coalition senators drowned out an anti-LFO speech by Senator Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party before the usual opposition walkout from the upper house.

An attempt by the PPP’s Senator Raza Rabbani failed to arouse the opposition’s trademark “No LFO” chorus as most members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal seemed unwilling to strain their vocal chords any more on an issue their leadership is reported to have settled with the ruling coalition.

Senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro made a short work of some of the business on the agenda before adjourning the house early to allow the ruling coalition senators to attend a meeting called by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to consult allies before bringing to parliament a promised constitutional amendment bill to settle the LFO row.

The MMA says the government has informed it to convene the National Assembly on Dec 26 to take up the bill incorporating points agreed between the two sides over thorny points about the president’s powers.

But a formal presidential order to summon the 342-seat lower house was still awaited.

MMA’s support would allow the bill’s passing by the required two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament.

The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, which had boycotted the government-MMA talks, has vowed to continue to oppose the LFO.

Mr Rabbani tried to revive the memories of an LFO enforced more than three decades ago by the then military president, Gen Mohammad Yahya Khan, saying giving legitimacy to Gen Pervez Musharraf’s presidency would only pave way for more military rulers.

Many senators on the treasury benches, particularly women, raised a storm of objections and their own chants, making the outspoken PKMAP senator from Balochistan inaudible in the galleries.

Chairman Soomro apparently agreed to the argument from Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj — who had to shriek to be heard in the noise — and went ahead with the business put on the agenda for a private members’ day, before the opposition stormed out of the house.

But except the introduction of a private bill by PML-Q’s Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhinder seeking an amendment in the Code of Civil Procedure to reduce the number of appeals against court decisions, even the opposition-less house failed to conduct much business mainly because of absence of concerned ministers.

LAPSED BILLS: While chairman Soomro ruled three opposition bills put on the agenda for introduction to have lapsed owing to the absence of their sponsors, he deferred five motions of ruling coalition senators seeking a debate on various issues because concerned ministers were not present in the house.