December 25, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 1, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: The opposition staged a quiet walkout from the Senate on Wednesday — without their usual slogan-chanting and desk-thumping — to continue their anti-LFO protest just as the government and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) signed an agreement to end a 13-month-old parliamentary deadlock.

MMA senators joined what could be their last walkout on the issue after their alliance of six religious parties committed with the ruling coalition to ensure passage of a constitutional amendment bill in both the houses to give effect to their accord on the contentious points of the Legal Framework Order.

But indications are that the main 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and its allies, which vowed to oppose the amendment bill inside and outside parliament, will soon part ways with the MMA whose action is seen by them as legitimizing a military ruler.

After the opposition walkout, which was preceded by an anti-government and anti-LFO speech by Amanullah Kanrani of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), more than 20 ruling coalition senators fell over one another to praise what they called sagacity of President Musharraf in making concessions to reach the agreement.

Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad called the agreement “a victory of the democratic process” rather than of any one side in which, he said, the government and the president demonstrated maximum flexibility and did not make it a matter of ego.

He said the government hoped the accord would make the political system stable and stronger.

Several other senators on the treasury benches expressed the hope that parliament would now function smoothly and opposition parties like the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N would end their boycott of the proceedings.

At the start of the Senate sitting on Wednesday evening after a day’s break, Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro allowed Mr Kanrani to deliver his speech on a point of order in which he called the government’s plans to build new cantonments and enforcement of a new police order in his home province of Balochistan as a blow to the provincial autonomy.

He said the government had issued a notification to acquire land in Dera Bugti district for a cantonment in disregard of a unanimous resolution of the Balochistan Assembly against new cantonments.

Mr Kanrani protested against the chairman’s action in “killing” some opposition’s private bills and questions, and accused the federal government of insulting the federating units and of leading the country towards autocracy.

On behalf of the government, Mr Wasim Sajjad rejected Mr Kanrani’s allegations and said any question about Balochistan Assembly’s resolution should be referred to the provincial government there rather than being agitated in the Senate.

The chairman deferred a call-attention notice from MQM Senator Babar Khan Ghori on “failure of the government to deliver computerized national identity cards on time to the general public” because of the absence of Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat.

But Mr Ghori and some other members called for an extension of the December 31 deadline for the validity of the old identity cards.

The house was adjourned until 10am on Friday.