15 April 2005	Friday	05 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 14: Amid opposition walkouts, the government rushed two more bills through the National Assembly without a debate on Thursday, provoking protests from within the ruling party about alleged political dictation.

Two bills were passed in the same fashion on Wednesday when the opposition parties boycotted proceedings after their protest walkouts against alleged harassment of their workers and the arrest of an opposition member of the house.

Pakistan Muslim League (PML) member M.P. Bhandara complained the lower house had become a rubber-stamp assembly after he and another party back-bencher said they had just now received standing committee reports on the two bills on Thursday’s agenda and, therefore, could not make any contribution to the passage of these laws.

“We are not dummies,” Mr Bhandara said and repeatedly shouted a solitary “no” when his other colleagues in the ruling coalition routinely went on saying a subdued “ayes” (yes) during the clause-by-clause and final voting on the two bills, which will become laws after being passed by the Senate as well.

“This is a black day... (in the assembly’s history),” bemoaned Mr Bhandara when PML member Sardar Bahadur Khan, then chairing the house, allowed him to speak on a point of order after the second of the two bills was passed without any discussion.

“We have become an ‘angootha chhap’ (rubber-stamp) assembly,” he said before the chair switched off his desk’s mike to cut short his remarks.

In his earlier remarks, Mr Bhandara said the practice of rushing through bills did not allow members to do justice to law-making. “We are taking only mechanical interest (in the process),” he added and called the practice a violation of the members’ parliamentary oath.

While Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi denied that reports of the standing committees concerned on the two bill were not provided in time, a newly elected member from Lahore, Amjad Farooq, came out in support of Mr Bhandara, saying he too did not get the committee reports before the bills were taken up for passage.

One of the bills — the Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill — amends the Pakistan Navy Ordinance to provide for imposing fines on convicted navy personnel in line with similar provisions in the Army Act and Air Force Act while the other – the Illegal Dispossession Bill — seeks to curb and provides for punishment against the activities of property grabbers.

The opposition parties earlier staged two separate walkouts shortly after the question hour to protest against alleged harassment and arrests of members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), and boycotted the remainder of the proceedings before the house was adjourned until 10am on Friday.

The PPP and its allies in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) walked out after PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said the government had detained thousands of party workers across the country to block a planned welcome for Mr Asif Ali Zardari, husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on his return to Lahore from Dubai on April 16.

The speaker deferred a privilege motion sought to be moved MMA’s Hafiz Hussain relating to Mr Afgan Niazi’s reported remark in a recent television interview that he feared a “toofan-e-badtameezi” (storm of bad manners) from opposition during President Pervez Musharraf’s speech to a yet to be called joint session of the two houses of parliament.

Law and Justice Minister Wasi Zafar opposed the motion while Mr Niazi said he would defend himself but would stick to his remark.

MMA members walked out of the house later after the speaker disallowed their colleagues Farid Piracha and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed to move an adjournment motion seeking to discuss arrests of alliance followers for their role in a general strike called for April 2.

The speaker said the MMA had to re-submit the motion as an earlier one had been dropped for not being moved owing to opposition walkouts on the last two days.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed earlier told the house that opposition representatives would boycott a house business advisory committee, which usually meets before the start of a house sitting, until the law minister apologised for allegedly calling MMA members terrorists during a committee meeting on Monday.

But Mr Zafar refused to apologize and said he would pay the MMA members in the same coin “if they use bad language” and stop them from what he called making the assembly hostage to their wishes.

Minister of State for Interior Shahzad Wasim urged the speaker to give a ruling to bar the use of the Parliament House as a logo by any housing society after some PML and MMA members said this was being done by one society and that such a practice could tarnish the image of parliament members. However, there was no immediate response from the speaker.

A ruling party member from Punjab, Makhdoom Syed Ahmad Alam Anwar, called for calling the provincial inspector-general of police to appear before the house privileges committee for what he called a breach of his privilege for allegedly obstructing his travel and arresting and detaining some people to prevent them from offering prayers at his “dera” (dwelling) in Rahim Yar Khan district.

The speaker deferred his ruling on the member’s privilege motion.