Plan to requisition NA, Senate sessions: Battle for judiciary
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, March 19: The parliamentary opposition plans to take what has become a battle for judiciary to the National Assembly and the Senate, opposition sources said on Monday.
They said opposition alliances were preparing to requisition special sessions of both the houses to discuss the situation arising from the suspension of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and a presidential reference against him filed to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on charges of misuse of authority and misconduct.
While protests mainly by lawyers and political activists raged across the country since President Pervez Musharraf took the unprecedented action against the chief justice, the opposition withheld any move to call a session of any house of parliament because of party leaders’ plans to attend a conference of opposition parties called by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in London for March 24-25.
But after the London meeting to discuss a future course of action against the present government was postponed indefinitely on Sunday because of the judicial crisis at home, opposition alliances began mutual consultations to send requisition requests to National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain and Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro to call sessions of their respective houses to discuss the situation, the sources said.
“There is already an agreement in principle between the opposition parties to call the sessions,” Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi said. “The requisitions may be filed on Tuesday after finalising their wording,” he told Dawn.
The identical rules of procedure of both the houses require the National Assembly Speaker and the Senate Chairman to call a session of the respective house within 15 days after receiving a requisition.
A tentative schedule has already set the next regular session of the National Assembly to begin on March 26, but the sources said the opposition parties suspected the government might delay the session because of an expected opposition onslaught over the judicial crisis.
The situation has been marked by virtual confinement of the chief justice at his residence for more than a week after the presidential move on March 9 and battles between the police and protesters across the country.
It has also spilled over to the media with an intriguing police assault on a private television office and taken a new twist with the resignation of at least one of judge of the Lahore High Court and several other judges of lower courts in the Punjab and Sindh provinces.
Besides their plans to requisition the special National Assembly and Senate sessions, parliament members of opposition parties have sent adjournment and other motions to the secretariats of the two houses for the future regular sessions calling for separate debates on various events connected with the judicial crisis.
Two adjournment motions of members of the ARD and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance sent to the Senate chairman seek debates on the alleged use of police force against lawyers and a police raid on the Islamabad offices of a private television channel and a newspaper on Friday when Justice Chaudhry made his second appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council at the Supreme Court.
