March, 17 2005	Thursday	06 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 16: The government was defeated in the National Assembly in a vote-count on Wednesday, although Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain tried to bail it out by delaying the count.

After more than half an hour’s delay during which the treasury side succeeded in bringing several members in, it still trailed with a tally of 78 members as against opposition’s 81.

The opposition recorded its protest during the business advisory committee’s meeting called in the speaker’s chamber.

It all started when Deputy Speaker Sardar Yaqub announced that a ‘condonation’ motion for the late tabling of a report by the chairman of standing committee on cabinet had been approved by ‘a yes’ vote.

This provoked protests from opposition members who said the motion could not be approved without determining the majority vote as only 48 treasury members were present against opposition’s 81.

At this stage Speaker Hussain took the chair and said that in his view the remaining business for the day might be deferred and instead debates pending on various matters taken up.

At this, the entire opposition rose in protest and started calling for a vote-count. Keeping his cool, the speaker asked the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Sher Afghan Niazi, to explain what had happened to invite such loud protests from the opposition.

In a bid to divert attention from the demand for a vote-count, the minister said the report which was being tabled pertained to ‘Madare Millat’.

The opposition said the speaker’s attitude was not in consonance with the prestige of his office as a neutral custodian of the house and threatened to bring a third no-confidence motion against him.

While the opposition persisted with its demand for vote, the speaker invited members from both sides to speak on points of order.

Naveed Qamar of PPP Parliamentarians and Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani of MMA pointed out violation of rule 260 which clearly laid down that the speaker could not run any business other than vote-count when the matter had been challenged by the opposition.

Dr Farid Paracha of MMA, Sahibzada Fazal Karim of PML (Nawaz) and Syed Nayyar Bokhari of PPP Parliamentarians, through points of order, criticized the speaker for delaying the vote.

The speaker invited Riaz Fatyana of the ruling PML from Punjab to say ‘something’ on a point of order and he obliged by speaking for well over 10 minutes.

Then the speaker asked former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to take the mike, but he refused to oblige, saying “heavens will not fall if the government is defeated in a vote-count”.

“Everyone should admit that it is opposition’s day today,” he added.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of MMA slammed what he called the speaker’s ‘partiality’ and said: “Mr Speaker, you have already faced two no-confidence resolutions and if you continue with this attitude, you will complete a hat-trick”.

A vote was taken when the treasury advised the speaker to do so.