August 02, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The National Assembly on Wednesday witnessed a rare floor-crossing from the treasury to opposition benches, but no questions were asked about a violation that the government itself had allowed in the past by suspending the relevant provisions of law.

PML woman member Firdaus Ashiq Awan took a seat on PPP benches amid cheers from her new colleagues as she made her first appearance in the present session, several days after she announced the switch during a visit to Britain where she was also given party ticket by PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to contest for an NA seat in Sialkot district against Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

Mr Hussain was not in the chair when the former parliamentary secretary for cabinet division took her new seat and nobody from the ruling party objected or tried to invoke the Political Parties Act under which she must lose her seat for floor-crossing. President Pervez Musharraf had suspended the disqualification provision of the Act for some time after the October 2002 elections allowing some 20 PPP members to form the separate PPP-Patriots group to help the election of Mir Zafarullah Jamali as prime minister. That provision was later restored.

Ms Awan has said she has resigned as parliamentary secretary but has given her resignation as MNA to Ms Bhutto to send it to the house speaker whenever she wanted.