ISLAMABAD Oct 27: The combined opposition in Senate on Wednesday successfully stalled debate on a bill allowing the president to keep two offices as the day's more than three hours' proceedings were consumed by speeches on points of order, motions on the bill and protests.
The bill was, however, tabled and two motions moved by the opposition to send it to the Council of Islamic Ideology and publicizing it for eliciting public opinion were rejected by majority vote. The opposition, however, presented a third motion just before the house rose to meet again on Thursday afternoon.
The upper house started its proceedings one and a half hours late because treasury members were not present in sufficient numbers.
The opposition and the treasury members exchanged harsh words. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan was particularity targeted by the opposition for changing his party loyalty and for persisting in confrontation with the opposition on technical grounds.
Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro had to expunge some remarks made against the minister and repeatedly requested the opposition to refrain from using unparliamentary language.
Tempers flared when the minister said that the bill had already been passed by the 342-member National Assembly which he said was the real representative house, representing 150 million people of the country.
Opposition Senator Mian Raza Rabbani severaly criticized the minister for what he termed his "derogatory remarks" which lowered the prestige of the upper house. He demanded an apology and threatened to move a privilege motion against the minister.
Earlier, speaking on a point of order, Prof Khurshid Ahmed, the parliamentary leader of the MMA, strongly criticized President Musharraf's ideas about possible solutions of the Kashmir issue which, he said, had demolished Pakistan's stated position of 50 years.
He said no-one except the 14 million Kashmiris had the right to decide their future and no solution would be acceptable without their consent. He accused the president of taking a U-turn on his own declaration made in January 2002 when addressing a joint session of the AJK legislative assembly and the AJK council he had said that there could be no solution of Kashmir except the one based on UN resolutions.
Prof Ahmed claimed that the entire world had acknowledged that the Kashmiris' struggle was indigenous in which they had sacrificed 80,000 lives.
Only a special parliamentary committee on Kashmir could discuss and present a possible roadmap for Kashmir, he asserted. He accused the president of damaging the country's foreign policy.
Minister of State for Interior Shahzad Wasim said that whatever proposals had been put forward by the president were for initiating a public debate. A majority of Kashmiri leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Ghani Bhatt, had welcomed the president's formula, he claimed.
Hidayat Shah of the MMA raised the question of the killings of 15 people in Wana on Tuesday. He also drew the attention of the house to the killings of over 80 peaceful Muslim protesters by Thai police.
Asfandyar Wali Khan of the ANP claimed that according to his information the Wana incident was a result of paramilitary forces' 'friendly fire'.
Although he had no confirmed reports, he said he doubted the ISPR version of the incident.
Interrupting him, Dr Shahzad Wasim said the incident once again proved the callousness of terrorists who did not spare even their own natives and members of the tribal jirga.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj said it was the first time that both India and Pakistan had started working on a roadmap for resolving the Kashmir dispute.
He appealed to journalists, judges and intellectuals to express themselves on the issue.
Ms Parigul Agha of the ruling PML complained of non-issuance of Umra visas to senators and said if members of the upper house were so helpless what would be the fate of the common man.
Mian Raza Rabbani criticized the government for what he called its anti-worker policy in enforcing the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 when the National Assembly had come into being.
He declared that the combined opposition was behind the working class in their struggle for the repeal of the infamous ordinance which had been enforced to please the IMF and the World Bank.
Muhammad Akram invited the attention of the government to the deportation of hundreds of Pakistanis from Muscat.
The chairman asked the treasury to present the bill on president's dual offices.
Mian Raza Rabbani strongly criticised what he termed the bulldozing of the bill in the National Assembly and asked the chair not to allow the same in the upper house. He said the current parliament had made history by surrendering its right to legislate by accepting the 17th Amendment handed down by one man. The amendment was ultra vires of the constitution, he said.
He said the bill was being introduced without meeting requirements of the relevant rules because it had not been circulated among the members two days earlier. The chairman, he said, had waived the said condition only to ease the bill's early passage.
The leader of the house asserted that the bill passed by the National Assembly had been duly circulated among members on October 22.
Dr Sher Afghan asked the opposition to move court if they felt the bill was ultra vires of the constitution. He said the National Assembly was the real representative house and had passed the bill by majority.
When the minister was speaking the opposition members started thumping their desks and raised anti-Musharraf slogans.
Moving his motion on the bill, Prof Khurshid said the law allowing General Musharraf to retain the COAS post was un-Islamic because never in Muslim history the office of the head of state (amirul maumineen) and that of the commander-in chief (salar) had been held by the same person.
He proposed that the bill ought to be referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology to give its expert opinion whether amalgamation the two offices was in accordance with Islam.
He said the moot point of the 17th Amendment was the president's army uniform as it contained a cut-off date for quitting the army chief's office by December 31.
He said a recent survey negated General Musharraf's claim that 96 per cent of the people wanted to see him in army uniform. The overwhelming majority (46 per cent) of people, he said, wanted him to relinquish his dual offices while only 37 per cent were in favour of him retaining it.
Sanaullah Baloch of Ponam said the piece of legislation which was presented in the Senate carried 22 contradictions with provisions of the constitution which needed a general debate among the public. Through a motion, he demanded that the bill be made public for eliciting general opinion.
He said Pakistan could not co-exist with a president in army uniform as majority of the people wanted democracy. Both the motions were rejected when chair sought vote on them towards the end of the proceedings when the house was debating whether the debate on the bill be started before adjournment or later.
While the opposition recalled an earlier understanding in the advisory committee meeting that the house would be run up to 3pm, the treasury insisted that the committee had also agreed that the debate should be started on Wednesday.
