January 26, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Two leading opposition figures in the Senate gave notice of a privilege motion on Friday, complaining of a continuing breach of their own and upper house’s privilege by the government by not allowing the house to meet for a mandatory minimum of 90 days in its current parliamentary year, an opposition spokesman said.

The motion, signed by opposition leader Mian Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal alliance parliamentary leader Prof Khurshid Ahmad, was submitted to the Senate secretariat with a request that it be admitted and sent to the house Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges, for a possible censure, according to PPP parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi.

The constitution requires the Senate to be in session for at least 90 “working days” in a parliamentary year. But in the current parliamentary year, which ends on March 11, the 100-seat upper house has so far met for only 35 days leaving a gap of 55 days, which makes it impossible to complete the mandatory 90-day period while only 46 days of the parliamentary year are left.

“A breach of privilege of the undersigned Senators and the Senate of Pakistan has accrued and continues to accrue due to the violation of the (relevant) provision of clause (2) of article 54 read with article 61 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan by the federal government,” the notice said.

A requisition signed by 39 opposition Senators was filed with the Senate secretariat on Thursday, calling for a special Senate session to several burning issues including the Dec 27 assassination of PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the prevailing food shortages, the poor law and order situation in the country, and the aftermath of the now-lifted extra-constitutional emergency that President Pervez Musharraf had enforced on Nov 3 in his capacity as chief of the army staff.

But this session, which must be convened within two weeks of the submission of the requisition, would hardly mitigate the deviation from the Constitution although its duration will be counted as working days of business.

The privilege motion recalled a reported statement by interim Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Syed Afzal Haider earlier this month that a summary for summoning a Senate session on Jan 14 had been approved and another resiling from the earlier one, and said the federal government had “deliberately and with mala fide intent” failed to meet a constitutional requirement and “thus circumvented and violated a specific provision of the constitution”.

It complained that the Senate had been prevented from transacting business which it would have if the house had met.