ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: An opposition-less National Assembly on Wednesday made its last vows of loyalty to President Pervez Musharraf by endorsing his weekend proclamation of emergency and suspension of the Constitution though the government seemed facing increasing isolation at home and abroad.
None from the ruling coalition voiced any reservation about General Musharraf’s extra-constitutional move of Saturday, which the diminished lower house approved through a resolution in what was a brief last session of its five-year tenure ending on Nov 15.
The assembly met for only about 20 minutes without any opposition presence as more than 80 members of parties in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) had resigned from the 342-seat house last month in an abortive effort to block the president’s controversial election for another five-year term and about 60 of the People’s Party Parliamentarians boycotted the sitting as a reaction to his latest move and held what turned out to be a violent protest demonstration.
Even journalists boycotted the proceedings to protest at the decrees which have meant a suspension of fundamental rights while the Constitution remains in ‘abeyance’, the sacking of most judges of the superior judiciary, imposition of new restrictions on the media, including a blackout of private television channels, and a crackdown against protesting lawyers and political and rights activists.
While the press gallery of the house remained empty, the boycotting journalists watched several ruling coalition members on a television screen at a press lounge lambaste the judiciary, the opposition parties and the media for creating a situation that they said forced General Musharraf to act in his capacity as army chief outside the scope of the Constitution.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, whose cabinet must give way to a caretaker government after Nov 15 if General Musharraf sticks to his earlier plans to hold elections in January, also took the floor and, without referring to the emergency, urged opposition parties to “come forward to create a consensus” for holding free and fair elections and praised the house for being the first to complete its term in 60 years of Pakistan’s life.
But Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who was also present, kept quiet, leaving the job to some other members of the party and coalition partners to justify what has met with widespread disapproval at home and abroad, in speeches after the house passed one resolution to endorse the emergency and another to congratulate the president on his Oct 6 election.
A formal notification of that election by the Election Commission still remains stayed by the order of a pre-emergency Supreme Court bench.
While the house sitting was in progress amid strict security, sounds of teargas firing by police on PPP protesters around a nearby crossing could be heard in balconies of the parliament building.
There had been speculation about whether the president would prefer to prolong the life of the National Assembly beyond Nov 15.
