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ISLAMABAD, May 7: The government assured the National Assembly on Monday that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's explanation of constitutional provisions about imposing emergency were not a hint of intent, after it came under fire from the opposition that saw the remarks as a threat to cope with the prevailing judicial crisis.
Opposition members sought a debate on Mr Aziz's remarks made in reply to a question at a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday and said he had tried to influence the situation created by the President Pervez Musharraf's controversial action of suspending and charge-sheeting Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and to scare the civil society from protesting against the move.But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi said the prime minister's remarks were only cursory and did not mean to say that conditions existed to justify a proclamation of emergency, which the president can do under the constitution's articles 232 and 233 on account of war or internal disturbance and suspend certain fundamental rights.
“This does not mean that he has given an intent,” the minister said about Mr Aziz's remarks, after the issue was first raised in the house by Mr Naveed Qamar of the People's Party Parliamentarians, who described the present situation as “dark times” and said he feared that the government could make such a move in response to a massive reception given to the chief justice during a 25-hour drive from Islamabad to Lahore on Saturday and Sunday.
Mr Farid Piracha of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) later said that if the government saw an “internal disturbance” due to its action against the chief justice “then it should think who had blown the bugle”.
Mr Saad Rafiq of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said that Mr Aziz’s remarks constituted “a threat to the civil society” while the nation was already “in a state of shock” after the presidential move against Justice Chaudhry.
BLOCKED TV CHANNELS: In another development, NA Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain set Tuesday for taking several opposition adjournment motions seeking a debate on the blockage of live telecasts of some private television channels in Sindh during the chief justice's trip and his speech at the bar in Lahore on Sunday morning.
The decision came after a token walkout by PPP members against the TV channels’ blocking, which some opposition members blamed on the government while some held the governing coalition’s ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible, provoking some sword-crossing between the MQM and MMA.
But the MMA got an unusual political support from the chair when the speaker asked members to abstain from recalling any political party's or politician's opposition to Pakistan before the creation of the country at the subcontinent's independence and partition in 1947.
The speaker termed his remarks only as a “statement” to end a controversy rather than a binding ruling after an MQM member, Ishratul Ebad, accused MMA’s component Jamaat-i-Islami of opposing the creation of Pakistan.
“From today there should be no talk about the opinion of any personality or religious or political party about the Pakistan movement before the creation of Pakistan,” Mr Hussain said in remarks in Urdu.
He said it was possible that some people opposed the Pakistan movement thinking their view at the time was correct, but added that after the creation of Pakistan “nobody should call another a kafir” on that account.
“To end this controversy, I am making this statement that now every person, political party or religious party should respect Pakistan in the same manner as Muslims respect their mosques, Christians respect their churches and people of other faiths respect their places of worship.”
MMA members greeted the speaker's statement by thumping their desks.
Some adjournment motions by MMA and PML-N members regarding the increase in electricity and gas rates were also put off until Tuesday, when the house will meet at 10am.
