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| 23 June 2004 | Wednesday | 04 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Opposition offers PM help
ISLAMABAD, June 22: Amid heightened speculation about the political future of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the opposition parties in the National Assembly on Tuesday offered him a helping hand if his party tried to oust him.
There was no immediate response from the prime minister as he heard representatives of the People's Party Parliamentarians and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal making embarrassing offers to him on the last day of the general debate on the budget.
Senior PPP parliamentarian Aitzaz Ahsan and MMA deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed dared the prime minister to stand up against what they saw was a heavily funded plot in the works, inspired from outside parliament.
Their remarks during speeches on the budget seemed to fuel speculation about the possibility - repeatedly rejected in the past by Mr Jamali and his spokesmen - of the ruling coalition electing a new leader of the house.
The speculation intensified last week after President Gen Pervez Musharraf started sitting in his chamber in the Parliament House wearing his army uniform and meeting groups of parliamentarians from the coalition.
Mr Ahsan accused military governments of turning the country into a "national security state" instead of a welfare state and called for unity among politicians for the supremacy of parliament. "Coffers have opened up," he said about perceived manoeuvres to replace Mr Jamali.
Mr Ahsan asked how the ruling coalition members could justify voting against the prime minister after Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz's budget speech - supposed to reflect the view of the whole cabinet and the coalition under the principle of joint responsibility - praised the performance of his government.
"You have been thumping your desks ... (to cheer the prime minister) and now at whose behest will you go to vote against him tomorrow?" he asked, addressing hushed treasury benches after some moments of furore in the house.
He appeared to be referring to possible voting on opposition's cut motions on demands of grants for ministries and divisions during the second reading of the Finance Bill.
By tradition, a government defeat in the vote on a cut motion is regarded as a loss of the house's confidence and moral justification to continue in office. Mr Ahsan said many in the ruling coalition had been "worshipping the rising sun" by supporting different governments, including those of late military ruler Gen Mohammad Ziaul Haq, the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Mr Jamali, and "they will be with someone else tomorrow."
"I ask these senior parliamentarians...what message you are giving to newcomers in the house...?" he said as he named several young members on the treasury benches, including National Reconstruction Bureau chief Daniyal Aziz, PML member from Lahore Kashmala Tariq and parliamentary secretary for finance Omar Ayub Khan.
"You should set an example of steadfastness and of supremacy of parliament," he told the senior politicians. "We have not voted for Zafarullah Jamali (in the prime ministerial election) but how will you pass that door when the vote takes place tomorrow?" he asked them.
The MMA's Hussain Ahmed alleged that an "investment" of $10 million had been made to replace Mr Jamali. "The combined opposition is united for not letting 'Jabal-i-dervish' fall," he said, referring to the prime minister.
Earlier, PML-N and PPP members walked out of the house in protest after Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain cut short a speech by Abid Sher Ali of the PML-N to let parliamentary secretary for interior Sanaullah Khan Mastikhel make a personal explanation after both of them shouted at each other.
They returned to the house after a few minutes. Earlier in the morning, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and MMA members exchanged hot words after MQM parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar accused a member of the Shabab-i-Milli, an affiliate of the Jamaat-i-Islami, of possible involvement in the murder of a worker in Karachi on Monday. The house offered Fateha for the deceased.
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