ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly made only a feeble vow to uphold parliamentary supremacy on Tuesday before both the houses of parliament took six days’ recess in the face of an Aug 14 protest march on a barricaded Islamabad as a challenge to the present government.

While the National Assembly suspended its day’s agenda of private members’ business to discuss the joint march by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) from Lahore for an indefinite sit-in outside the Parliament House, the Senate debated the government’s invocation of Article 245 of the Constitution to deploy troops in Islamabad without judicial oversight.

The two houses were adjourned until Aug 18 in anticipation of an expected wrap-up of the protest by then.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, an ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, made an impassioned call in the National Assembly for taking a strong stand against what he saw as a threat to parliament and the democratic system that received a wide support from both sides of the house, except a couple of PTI members who justified their party’s “Azadi march” for a redress of the alleged rigging in last year’s general elections.

But after consultations with other parties in the house and apparently for the sake of consensus, Development, Planning and Reforms Minister Ahsan Iqbal moved only a mild resolution pledging the house to play “full role” to uphold democratic institutions and the Constitution.

“The parliament, elected by the vote of the people, is working, and will continue to work, for the supremacy of Constitution, law and democracy in this country,” it said, adding: “We believe that Pakistan’s existence, progress and security depends only, and only, on democracy. Therefore, we pledge to continue playing full role to maintain the supremacy of democratic institutions and the Constitution.”

Mr Achakzai, aiming his attack mainly at PAT leader Allama Tahirul Qadri’s call for a “revolution” and describing his oft-repeated call for revolting against anyone tampering with the Constitution as his ‘fatwa”, said his party and its allies in the Balochistan government would hold a parallel march in Quetta on Aug 14 to demonstrate their support for the democratic system.

Declaring that “we are at open war with anyone tampering with the Constitution”, he said: “If this time parliament and the Constitution are touched, the federation will cease to exist.”

While Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah has in the past advised the government against obstructing the march with methods like barricading roads with containers, Abdul Sattar Bachani of the PPP said he agreed with Mr Achakzai’s speech but accused government ministers of being non-serious to tackle the situation.

Jamaat-i-Islami parliamentary leader Sahibzada Tariqullah openly opposed the protest march, after the apparent failure of a mediation by his party’s chief Sirajul Haq, while Abdul Rashid Godil of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement refrained from indicating a clear position for or against the march.

In the absence of most of the senior ministers from the house – before Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and Ahsan Iqbal came much later in the day – States and Frontier Regions Minister Abdul Qadir Baloch and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed ruled out any threat to the government from the Aug 14 march. Mr Baloch, a former army lieutenant-general, said with confidence: “The armed forces uphold the Constitution.”

Published in Dawn, Aug 13th, 2014