ISLAMABAD: The Senate unanimously adopted on Friday a resolution dismissing the demand for dissolution of assemblies and resignation of parliamentarians as unconstitutional. The National Assembly had adopted a similar resolution the previous day.

The house, through the resolution moved by Senator Saeed Ghani of the PPP, resolved to uphold the supremacy of parliament and expressed support for continuation of the democratic system. It also condemned the ‘objectionable’ language used by the heads of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) against parliament and lawmakers.

Earlier speaking in the house, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said a new script for political discourse was being unwittingly written, according to which the fate of political and democratic institutions would henceforth be determined by unruly mobs instead of the people voting at regular intervals in a peaceful, orderly and transparent manner.

Acquiescing to the mob’s self-assumed right to make political choices on behalf of the people today will degenerate tomorrow into unruly mobs gathered by banned, extremist outfits demanding control of security assets of the Muslim world’s only nuclear power. It is a grim scenario that will instantly invite elements inimical to Pakistan’s security assets to exploit it.

Dilating upon the conspiracy theory, Mr Babar said that while the inept provincial and federal governments provided an opportunity to fuel the fire through the June 17 killings in Model Town, Tahirul Qadri had been talking about the so-called revolution even before the incident and referred to the PAT chief’s June 11 and 15 press conferences.

Similarly, he said, PTI chief Imran Khan who had started his so-called march with a demand for vote audit ended up with a six-point charter that did not include even the original demand.

“Clearly, it seems that a deliberate and calculated move is being orchestrated by some elements to first defame and then wind up parliament and the system to pave way for dictatorship,” he said. He called upon parliamentarians to rise to the occasion and play a historic role in this critical hour.

Mr Babar said that on Aug 20 he had tried to enter the Parliament House to submit an adjournment motion to the Senate Secretariat about “the breach of the red zone” by charged protesters seemingly passing through security cordons with ease and without any resistance. He said he wanted the Senate to discuss at the first available opportunity the situation arising out of what was triumph of ‘mobcracy’ in dictating national agenda.

The triumph of mob over the Parliament House, he said, posed an imminent threat to national security because it opened up a distinct possibility that the stick-wielding protesters might also demand control of the country’s security assets.

Mr Babar said he had sent the adjournment motion by email, but since a signed copy was required under rules, he set out personally to deliver it but could not enter the Parliament House premises because roads leading to it had been blocked by the mob. Tahirul Qadri was roaring from the podium on loudspeakers asking his followers to seal parliament and not let anyone go or come out.

The protesters also started shaking gates of the Parliament House and tried to bring it down.

Mr Babar said that never before had a stick-wielding mob been instigated to attack parliament and never before had a charged mob actually attacked it. Never before a parliamentarian was physically stopped from carrying out his parliamentary function that required him to submit a motion in the Senate on a critical issue.

“Indeed, never before parliament has been so vandalised, humiliated and abused even by dictators,” he said, adding that the mob crashed into the red zone after some of its leaders described parliament as fake and unrepresentative.

Senator Afrasiab Khattak of the ANP said all political forces were united to protect the Constitution. He proposed signing of another charter of democracy by all political parties with a commitment not to be part of any conspiracy against the democratic process.

The MQM’s Senator Tahir Hussain Mashaddi said all decisions should be taken in parliament and not on streets. “All the political parties have a right to protest, but this should be done in a democratic way.”

Senator Zafar Ali Shah of the PML-N sought an apology from Imran Khan for describing parliamentarians as thieves. “He must apologise like he did for supporting Gen Musharraf’s referendum,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014