Opposition targets dual office as NA session begins
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Some opposition members came down hard on President Pervez Musharraf's dual office on Wednesday and even called for his resignation
, but some seemed to be playing soft on the issue as the National Assembly began its spring session after a recess of nearly four months.
Sharp attacks came from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim League-N through points of order after the People's Party Parliamentarians questioned the legality of the session at the start of the lower house's new parliamentary year without a mandatory presidential address to a joint sitting of parliament.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain switched off the mikes of two opposition members to cut short their speeches against the president, sparking a token protest walkout by the entire opposition that also briefly broke the quorum of the 342-seat house. However, he reserved his rulings on a PPP privilege motion and other points of order on the matter before the house began an opposition-sought debate on the devastation caused by recent heavy rains and snowfalls across the country.
Though the opposition had planned to give the government some immediate dressing down over unrest in Balochistan, the matter was deferred for a day when both sides agreed in a house advisory committee meeting to hold a three-day debate on it from Thursday, when the house meets at 4.30pm.
PPP President Amin Fahim raised the latest rift in the Sindh government that came into the open with Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim sacking his revenue minister Imtiaz Sheikh, and asked why the National Accountability Bureau was not taking notice of corruption charges the two ruling party figures were hurling at each other?
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi called the row a "political matter to be settled with the passage of time" and told the house that a prime ministerial inspection team would inquire into the issue.
PPP's Naveed Qamar was the first to use a point of order to challenge the session and followed up with a privilege motion that said the privilege of the house had been breached by what he called a violation of the Constitution by not calling a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate to start the new parliamentary year.
But unlike some MMA and PML-N members, he and his party colleague Aitzaz Ahsan did not raise the question of General Musharraf holding both the presidency and the army chief's office.
It was not clear whether it was a coincidence or a deliberate caution in view of reported dialogue between the government and the PPP in search of a political conciliation.
Mr Niazi rejected Mr Qamar's argument, saying the joint sitting must await the completion of its parliamentary year by the Senate on March 12, the date on which the present upper house had first met in 2003, and urged the speaker to rule Mr Qamar's privilege motion out of order. But there seemed to be no sound reply to PPP's top legal brain Aitzaz Ahsan, who said the parliamentary year must start with the first session of the National Assembly.
He based his argument on clause (3) of article 56 of the Constitution that says: "At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the National Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the president shall address both houses assembled together and inform the Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament) of the causes of its summons."
The government also did not respond to PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's query that if the joint sitting of parliament had to wait for the Senate's completion of its parliamentary year, then why such a sitting was called last year on Jan 17.
MMA's Liaquat Baloch accused General Musharraf of violating his oath as an army officer by engaging in politics and demanded his resignation to pave the way for the election of a new president who, he said, should address the joint sitting.
Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar countered by a jibe at the MMA, recalling MMA's support for the 17th Constitutional Amendment that gave parliamentary legitimacy to the president and, amid opposition shouts of "no, no", said: "He is a constitutional president with their help."
MMA's Hafiz Hussain Ahmed accused the president of cheating by not keeping his promise to give up his office as army chief by Dec 31 last before the chair switched off the member's mike to render his further remarks inaudible.
The speaker also had PML-N member Ms Tehmina Daultana's mike switched off as she alleged absence of rule of law in the country while referring to the rape of a lady doctor at Sui.
A one-minute silence, on a proposal by ruling PML member Mushtaq Victor to mourn the death of about 300,000 people by December's tsunami sea waves in the Indian Ocean, somewhat cooled the tempers. But all opposition members marched out of the house in protest after the speaker again stopped Ms Daultana's speech.
