March 18, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

ISLAMABAD, March 17: The signs of confrontation between the new Parliament and Presidency were evident on the first day of the National Assembly session on Monday when during the oath- taking the members vowed to “preserve, protect and defend” the constitution as it was on November 2, 2007 and signed a requisition notice in advance to convene the session, if President Musharraf delayed it.

The word “constitution” has been mentioned twice in the oath of the members of the National Assembly. On both the occasions, the members of the PPP, PML-N and other coalition parties made an addition on their own by loudly saying that they would perform their functions in accordance with the Constitution and “preserve, protect and defend” the constitution as it was on November 2, 2007.

On Nov 3, 2007, President Pervez Musharraf proclaimed a state of emergency in the country and imposed Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) resulting in the sacking of some 60 judges of the superior courts including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Later, President Musharraf through a presidential decree and as chief of the army staff amended the constitution and provided indemnity to his own act of imposing the emergency that remained imposed for 42 days.

The PPP and the PML-N, the two major winners of the Feb 18 elections, not only opposed the emergency but termed all the steps taken by the president during the emergency period as “illegal and unconstitutional”.

The two parties, which are likely to form future government in the next week, have vowed not to provide indemnity through parliament to the act of President Musharraf to impose emergency.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary secretary of the PPP Izhar Amrohvi told Dawn that as many as 180 members of the PPP, PML-N and the ANP had signed a requisition notice to convene the National Assembly session to preempt any move from the Presidency to delay the session for the election of the prime minister.

Mr Amrohvi said they had received some reports that the Presidency was busy in hatching some conspiracies and it might attempt to delay the National Assembly session till April for the election of the prime minister.

He said under the rules, one-fourth of the total members i.e. 86 members could submit a requisition notice and the speaker was bound to convene the session within 15 days of the receipt of the notice. He said in this way the government would not require from the president to summon the session. By adopting this strategy in future the ruling coalition can permanently deprive the president of his power to summon and prorogue the session.