31 October 2004	Sunday	16 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has questioned the legality of parliament in the wake of media reports that intelligence services were called in to ensure quorum.

In a statement on Saturday, she said it was an abuse of office to use the administrative machinery for personal gain under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws.

"By using the ISI to ensure attendance of parliamentarians, the present cabinet was abusing its office to ensure its continuation despite the inability to muster a quorum - leave alone a majority - on the floor of the House," she said and questioned as to why NAB was silent on the issue.

The former prime minister said in a democracy, the will of the people prevailed through their elected representatives and that the leader of the majority was legally entitled to govern. If the leader of the majority party lost the confidence of his members, he had to resign.

If the treasury benches lacked quorum it meant they had lost the majority in the House, she said. She recalled that the PPP governments, despite being coalition governments, were always able to maintain quorum.

She said in fact the Jamali government could not have been formed in 2002 but for the illegal orders and activities of governmental institutions, a breakaway group was formed to stitch together a majority that was neither elected nor existed.

The end result of the dismissal of the democratic government of the PPP in 1996 has been a constitutional and political crisis culminating in the imposition of martial law and an inability to transfer authority back to a civilian facade despite a questionable referendum, general elections and constitutional amendments, she maintained.

Ms Bhutto said instead of stage managing political affairs leading to the neglect of social reform and good governance, democracy and constitutional rule should be restored. She said the people of Pakistan deserved a better future than one where a regime ordered the ISI to monitor parliamentarians' attendance rather than monitor terrorists, extremists and other elements that posed a threat to the internal security of the country.

"It may be recalled that the media reported that the parliamentary situation is so bad that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has had to rely on intelligence officials to discipline treasury MNAs."

The regime knows that its own parliamentarians are alienated due to different reasons and therefore could not afford to bring them to the House for a no-confidence move against the speaker fearing they would vote with the opposition.

Almost half the members of the ruling parliamentary group have been inducted as ministers, advisors, etc.

However, most of them remain absent despite being beneficiaries of the system in a reckless disregard of their parliamentary responsibilities.

"A leading weekly reported it had evidence that indicated that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz himself had asked the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to work on the disgruntled MNAs and ensure their presence in the House," she said.

Shockingly, Ms Bhutto added, a list of such MNAs was handed over to the intelligence agencies to be "dealt with." Previously, under the so-called democracy ushered in by the military regime in October 2002, police officers were used to ensure attendance of members in the parliament, she added.