03 November 2004	Wednesday	19 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Leader in the Senate Senator Raza Rabbani on Tuesday tried to justify the brief stint of the late prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , as Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) under what he said were special circumstances during the early 1970s.

Speaking on a point of order, Senator Rabbani tried to do some post-disaster damage control for Monday's silence of the PPP when its senators listened in silence to the ruling party Senator Tariq Azeem's onslaught on ZA Bhutto's democratic credentials.

However, without contradicting Senator Azeem's claim backed by documents that ZAB tried to influence the Election Commission during early 1970s, Senator Rabbani put up an argument that two wrongs didn't make a right by challenging the credibility of the Election Commission working under the incumbent government. "Is it a must that you also follow the mistakes of the past," said Senator Rabbani.

Interestingly enough, the claims of partiality of the present Election Commission made by Senator Rabbani went unchallenged by the treasury members this time. A brief exception was Senator Azeem himself who took notes as Senator Rabbani spoke but then chose not to reply.

According to few senators, the opposition and the treasury members had a tacit understanding on running the affairs of the Upper House in a spirit of "mutual goodwill."

When Senator Rabbani started his rebuttal of the ruling party's Monday's onslaught, he said, it was a historical fact that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a CMLA.

Expounding on the circumstances in which ZA Bhutto became CMLA, Senator Rabbani said Gen Yahya Khan was put under house arrest in the presidency by Lt Gen Gul Hasan and Air Marshal Rahim Khan.

Senator Rabbani said when Bhutto assumed power under such circumstances, he took vote of confidence on April 17, 1972 and gave an interim constitution to the country and within a span of a few months ended the martial law.

Questioning the democratic credentials of the government, Senator Rabbani said the present government came with vows of depoliticising the state institutions but reality on the ground was contrary to the fact.

Questioning the credibility and impartiality of the Election Commission, he said where was the independence of the Election Commission when elections were held in 2002 or when the elections of Shaukat Aziz were rigged.

He said PPP had sent 55 objections to the Election Commission and was yet to get a reply in this regard. He said the Election Commission took an extra-constitutional step by holding elections for Gen Musharraf through a referendum and in violation of the procedure laid down in the Constitution for election of the President.

Senator Rabbani said the state institutions had been politicised by giving a role to National Security Council, and the two offices bill amounted to involving the army in politics.

Citing example of politicisation of the judiciary, Senator Rabbani said, "Is it not true that former Chief Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui was confined in his house till the other judges took oath under PCO?" He said the present government had fettered democracy.

On another point of order, MMA's Prof Ibrahim Khan said previous parliaments had given validation to military rules on at least three occasions as mentioned in Articles 269 and 270 of the 1973 Constitution.

In addition to Article 270 (AA), which indemnified the military rule of Gen Musharraf by a two-third majority with active support of MMA, Article 269 of the Constitution mentions that "Martial Law Regulations" passed between December 20, 1971 and April 20, 1972 were validated by the then parliament.

Article 270 of the Constitution provides that all "Martial Law Regulations" passed between March 25, 1969 and December 19, 1971 were validated by the parliament.

Through Article 270 (A) of the Constitution, the parliament also indemnified all the "Martial Law Regulations" and actions taken by Gen Zia-ul Haq since July 5, 1977 and the day when the said Article came into force.