ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: In a rare show of urgency and consensus in one house, both houses of parliament passed a private bill on Tuesday to allow what the draft called ‘one-dish’ — but actually up to six-items — meals at wedding ceremonies.

It was the first private members’ bill passed by the present parliament and will become law after a formal, mandatory consent by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

A near unanimity in the National Assembly, where the bill originated, came only a day after chaos rocked the house when the government tabled a controversial bill seeking to protect women from misuse of Islamic Hudood laws and precedes potentially more stormy proceedings after the opposition brings a no-confidence move against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday.

Immediately after it was passed, the government took the Marriage Functions (prohibition of ostentatious displays and wasteful expenses (Amendment) Bill to the Senate, which endorsed it without debate when the opposition was boycotting the house to protest on another issue.

The bill, authored by two National Assembly members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance, had been lying on the house agenda since January.

But it suddenly won an unexpected support from the treasury benches in early June after the Supreme Court ordered a strict enforcement of the Marriage Functions (prohibition of ostentatious displays and wasteful expenses) Ordinance 2000 that allowed only hot and cold drinks at wedding ceremonies and cancelled a Punjab provincial law that allowed one-dish meals.

The original draft, submitted by MMA members from Karachi Mohammad Laeeque Khan and Mohammad Hussain Mehanti had proposed provision for serving an unexplained ‘one dish’ meal in addition to hot and cold drinks.

But the house’s Standing Committee on Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr defined the ‘one dish’ to mean four items: one salan (curry), roti, rice and one sweet dish, which actually comes to a total of six items including hot and cold drinks.

The bill was taken up for discussion on August 8 — the first private members’ day of the present session of the National Assembly — when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain deferred further debate after the main ruling and opposition parties supported the move, but some of their members voiced concern that it would deprive the poor an excuse to escape what had traditionally become compulsory expenses on large meals.

During the brief debate on Tuesday, when the bill was taken up again, Raja Pervez Ashraf, secretary-general of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, and Rai Mansab Ali and Mehnaz Rafi of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) supported the move as being in conformity with the local traditions and Islamic injunctions about serving meals at weddings and beneficial for the poultry industry and commercial wedding halls.

The sole discordant voice came from PML’s Farooq Amjad Mir who said passing the bill would mean submitting to those who violated the earlier law and wishes of the poultry industry rather than of the common man.

The bill was not on the Senate agenda for the day, but immediately after the NA vote, Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar took it to the upper house.