01 July 2004	Thursday	12 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, June 30: Pandemonium broke out in the Punjab Assembly here on Wednesday when treasury members moved a motion congratulating Chaudhry Shujaat Husain on assuming the office of prime minister.

Law Minister Raja Basharat moved the motion only to provoke the opposition into berating the Chaudhry for his limited role and craven submission to the whims of a dictator.

Opposition leader Qasim Zia took the floor to claim that all congratulatory gestures should be directed towards President Gen Pervez Musharraf or his confidant Tariq Aziz.

"They have won the round by successfully ejecting politicians out of the system and imposing an imported guy on the system. The house should lament the situation instead of celebrating 45-day induction of the Chaudhry in the system."

Mr Zia exhorted the treasury members to analyze the situation and ponder who was the real ruler of the country; a dictator or democratic institutions elected by the masses. It was all-pervasive dictator that has crippled the whole political system and using a certain lot of politicians for achieving his goals.

How the house could applaud such a cowardice displayed by the Chaudhry and outgoing prime minister, he wondered. Rana Sanaullah took the next turn to remind the house that the Chaudhry was an interim arrangement and was there only to keep the seat warm.

The real prime minister would enter the scene later and the Chaudhry has to perform an unfortunate act of, what he called, "making up a bride" for the next bridegroom. "This role hardly deserves the kind of jubilation that the PML-Q is trying to show," he said.

"The treasury members' claim that democracy is on the track has proven to be a white lie considering the present crisis," he claimed. According to Constitution, sovereignty belonged to the people of Pakistan who would exercise it through elected institutions.

But, practically speaking, exactly opposite was true. One man has rigged the whole system in his favour and no one else mattered. The way prime minister has been shown the door, a new one inducted for 45 days to finalize arrangements for third one spoke volumes of the state of democracy in Pakistan, he said.

Raja Basharat stood up to defend the motion and launched a frontal attack on the MMA, asking the present MMA members to be clear about their role in national politics. Being neither here nor there would not help them. They should either become a genuine opposition or join treasury.

This provoked parliamentary leader of the MMA, Asghar Gujjar, into claiming that his party only reserved the right to vote in election of prime minister. "The MMA is in the opposition and there should be no doubt about that. But, if the government thinks that only 'spiting on its face' would tantamount to opposition, the MMA is ready to spit."

This caused a rumpus and exchange of abuses between the MMA members and a provincial minister. Situation was defused quickly but both aggrieved parties kept seething for almost the rest of the session.

The opposition walked out of house when motion was removed by the mover and speaker called for voice vote. The opposition screamed no and walked out. The treasury benches moved their motion in a house occupied by them.

The motion praised leadership qualities of the Chaudhry and hoped that he would continue his role in strengthening democratic institutions in Pakistan. The motion also hoped that he would continue to display politics of tolerance which was his family traditions. The assembly was later prorogued for an indefinite period.