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| 22 January 2004 | Thursday | 29 Ziqa'ad 1424 |
Legality of Senate session challenged
ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: The Senate on Wednesday seemed shocked to know that more than two hours of its last sitting on Monday was possibly illegal as chairman Mohammedmian Soomro
, who conducted the proceedings at the time, had already become acting president after President Pervez Musharraf had left for Turkey.
PPP parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani raised the matter through a point order, only to be confirmed by the treasury benches and acting chairman Khalil-ur-Rehman, who promised to consult the acting president to clarify how this unprecedented faux pas happened.
The chair put off a ruling until he had consulted Mr Soomro. Mr Rabbani, quoting parliamentary rules of procedure, said Mr Soomro had automatically become acting president immediately after General Musharraf's departure for Turkey on Monday for a three-day visit that was broadcast by the Pakistan Television in its 9pm bulletin - but he continued presiding over the upper house sitting past 10pm.
After the chairman becomes acting president, house must be conducted either by the acting chairman or any senator from a panel of chairmen, he argued as he called for invalidation of the proceedings on Monday for the time Mr Soomro presided over the sitting as "a stranger at the moment" after becoming acting president.
"It seems the present government is determined not to have any respect for law, rules and constitution," he said. Mr Rabbani was unsure about the exact time of General Musharraf's departure, but said even if it had happened just when it was broadcast by Pakistan Television in its 9pm bulletin and conceding half an hour more when the presidential plane could have been within the Pakistani airspace, at least half an hour's upper house proceedings would have been void.
But the acting chairman, after consulting Senate staff, said the president had actually left at 7.30pm and the Senate secretariat was informed about it at 10pm - leaving a gap of two and a half hours.
"This is gross negligence," Mr Khalil-ur-Rehman said, upholding Mr Rabbani's point as valid, and called the act even "mala fide". Leader of house in the Senate, Wasim Sajjad, who himself had been the upper house chairman for 11 years and became acting president several times, confirmed Mr Rabbani's argument and said he had not seen such an irregularity in the past.
He said it appeared the Senate secretariat had not been informed in time about the president's departure, but he opposed Mr Rabbani's demand for invalidating the proceedings for the period when Mr Soomro had become acting president and suggested timely adjustments in the future.
"Let us not dub it mala fide," former law minister Khalid Ranjah of PML-Q said, and suggested that the irregularity be rectified through a resolution of the house.
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