ISLAMABAD, March 27: The National Assembly and the Senate will sit together on Saturday, eager to hear a credible word from President Asif Ali Zardari about how soon parliament will get back its lost power.

The constitutionally mandatory joint sitting, marking the start of the second parliamentary year after last year’s general election, will be the second to be addressed by the president in a little more than six months, coming on the heels of a judicial-cum-political turmoil that is likely to impact on the present government’s future.

Mr Zardari is likely to speak about both internal and external issues facing the country and the performance of the first year of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s PPP-led coalition government.

But most ears will be tuned to what he has to say about empowering parliament by clipping the presidency’s autocratic powers assumed by former military president Pervz Musharraf to undermine what was supposed to be a parliamentary system of government with a sovereign parliament and still being held by a democratically elected president.

Mr Zardari had made only a vague promise for a change in his first address to a joint sitting on Sept 20 last year by proposing that a joint committee of all parties in parliament ‘revisit’ the Constitution’s controversial 17th Amendment and article 58(2)(b) that gave the controversial powers to the presidency and legitimised General Musharraf rule by decree after seizing power in 1999.

With the president also heading the ruling party, nothing was done to even form such a committee and critics attributed second thoughts to him about the PPP’s commitment to undo the disfigurement of the country’s basic law as well as about his own promises – apparently until 12 days ago – to restore superior court judges sacked by General Musharraf under a Nov 3, 2007, extra-constitutional emergency proclamation.

But spring-time brought a sea change in the situation when a lawyer-led movement, backed by several opposition parties and the civil society, forced the government to do what it earlier said was impossible by restoring just by an executive order Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the remaining 10 of about 60 judges of the Supreme Court and four high courts who had been deposed.

The president is likely to give a justification for the restoration through a prime ministerial notification rather than a constitutional amendment previously prescribed by some of his advisers, but it would be hard to explain the damage done by this delay to his personal as well as the government’s credibility.

The success of the movement through people’s power, fuelled by a backlash against the imposition of governor’s rule in the Punjab province, resulted in a virtual judicial revolution that also paved the way for a greater focus on empowering parliament by withdrawing from the presidency the authority to dissolve the National Assembly and appoint armed forces chiefs, provincial governors and the chief election commissioner and giving these powers to the prime minister as envisioned by the original 1973 constitution as the standard norms of a parliamentary system.

Both the PPP and its major rival Pakistan Muslim League-N had committed to restore the constitution to its pre-Oct 12, 1999 coup position – barring some acceptable changes -- under the famous Charter of Democracy signed by their leaders in 2006 and the subsequent endorsement of their position by most other parties represented in parliament can ensure the change through constitutional amendments by the required two-thirds majority in both the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-seat Senate.

Political sources said it would be difficult for the president to delay the promised change any longer in the face of growing opposition pressure and a rumbling within the PPP as evident from recent resignations by two key federal ministers and comments by some of prominent members apparently sidelined by the new party leadership after long periods of closeness to their assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto.

The president is also likely to speak about the justification of imposing governor’s rule in Punjab on Feb 25 after a Supreme Court bench disqualified PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother and provincial chief minister Shahbaz Sharif from holding any public office although both the issues are now before the court.

The PML-N is likely to register a noticeable protest at the joint sitting, which is scheduled to begin at 4pm, although the party has ruled out any disruption of the proceeding as it had done in 1994 when its members tried to shout down then PPP-sponsored president Farooq Leghari amid intense confrontation between the two parties.

Other issues likely to figure prominently in the presidential address will be Pakistan’s role in the US-led so-called war on terrorism, particularly in light of US President Barack Obama’s newly-announced strategy about Pakistan and Afghanistan, tense relations with India after the Mumbai attacks as well as the role of friendly countries to help Pakistan overcome the effects of a global recession.

Among internal issues expected to be spoken about will be the situation in the militancy in the Fata and the NWFP, US drone attacks in Fata, a low-intensity insurgency in Balochistan, suicide bomb attacks in the country, and hardships caused by prolonged price hikes and power shortages.
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