29 May 2004	Saturday	09 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, May 28: The PML-N on Friday celebrated the 6th anniversary of the nuclear tests carried out on this day in the second Nawaz Sharif rule to bring the country at pars with India.

A cake was cut by the party leaders outside the Punjab Assembly Secretariat, where leaders of the PPP and the MMA were also present as a mark of support. The ruling party did not organize any such ceremony, although the PML-N had said that the former should not treat the event exclusively of the opposition.

When the supporters of the deposed prime minister were cutting cakes and holding seminars to highlight the importance of the achievement, the wedding of the younger daughter of Mr Sharif with Senator Ishaq Dar's son was being performed in Jeddah.

Important party leaders had been invited to Saudi Arabia, but many of them could not reach for various reasons. It was unfortunate that Mr Sharif, the man who had ordered the tests, resisting pressures and rejecting financial baits, was not in the country to celebrate the occasion.

And the man who had enabled the country to achieve the capability -- Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan -- is living under tight security with a serious dent to his integrity. Dr Khan's image of a national hero stood tarnished when it was alleged that he had transferred nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Allegations about Dr Khan's activities put President Pervez Musharraf in a very difficult position, although he is defending the scientist on every forum as he regards him as his hero. With the role of Dr Khan having gone in the background, the nuclear programme is being controlled by his seasoned colleagues.

Before the cake was cut, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah Khan paid glowing tributes to the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for starting the nuclear programme and Mian Nawaz Sharif for his decision to show the world that Pakistan was a nuclear power.

Law Minister Raja Basharat said in the house that if the role of other leaders was praiseworthy, credit for safeguarding the nuclear programme in the prevailing difficult situation went to President Musharraf. Rather, he emphasized, Gen Musharraf's role was more important than that of other leaders.

Ridiculing the alliance between the PML-N and the PPP, the minister recalled that there was a time when Mian Nawaz Sharif regarded Ms Bhutto as a security risk. Similarly, he said, Mr Asif Ali Zardari has been behind bars for the last seven years only because of the cases instituted against him by the PML-N leadership.

While criticizing the PML-N leaders for implicating the PPP leaders in cases, Raja Basharat was forgetting that he too was with the Sharifs when their government was involved in such activities.

The celebrations of Friday will be followed by a "mourning" on Saturday (today). On this day 16 years back, Gen Ziaul Haq had dismissed the government of Mr Muhammad Khan Junejo. The PML was united then and thus the general's allegations were applicable to all leaders. But, unfortunately, the dismissal of the Junejo government divided the party, with Mian Nawaz Sharif (then chief minister) welcoming the step as "in the best national interest".

The fragmentation of the party in the subsequent years and the recent unification of many factions make it unclear whether any leader remembers what had happened on this day in 1988.

The Punjab government came under fire in the assembly on Friday when a debate on the law and order situation began. Most of the speakers said the present system was responsible for the increase in the crime rate. Some held the police, unemployment and lack of justice responsible for the rising crime graph.

PPP's Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan came up with figures which showed a 24 per cent increase in the crime incidence in three months. He alleged that dacoits in uniform were being produced by the present system.

Whatever the reasons behind the growing lawlessness, there is little doubt that the lawmakers too don't give much importance to the law and discipline. They are not bound even by the orders of the man called the custodian of the house.

When the present assembly came into existence, the speaker had issued very clear instructions that cell phones would not be allowed in the assembly hall. But nobody cares about these instructions, including the ministers.

For example, on Friday Husain Jehanian Gardezi, Dr Shafiq and many ruling party and opposition members used their phones in the hall. Some legislators left the hall and went to the gallery to receive the incoming calls.

In the Punjab Assembly corridors many ruling party legislators were making speculations about the new office-bearers of the provincial organization. It is said that Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who is also the provincial president, is holding consultations with his colleagues to finalize his team.

Some speculated that the pattern of the central organization would be followed in the Punjab. This means, a number of vice-presidents and joint secretaries will be appointed. It is said that Arshad Khan Lodhi will be retained as secretary-general of the provincial organization.