ISLAMABAD, March 17: The new National Assembly gave Makhdoom Amin Fahim a big applause at its opening on Monday although his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) remained undecided about his candidacy for prime minister to lead what would be a landmark coalition of former rivals.

The oath-taking by 329 newly-elected law-makers marked the beginning of a five-year term of the 342-seat lower house in which the opponents of President Pervez Musharraf have acquired a two-thirds majority after the Feb 18 general election to be able to form a comfortable government and pose a potent challenge to his sweeping powers.

Held under tight security amid a nationwide wave of militant violence, the occasion also meant a change of roles between the present political rivals.

The PPP-led coalition of former opposition parties is poised to take power after more than eight years of military-led rule and the previous pro-Musharraf ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q is to take the role of opposition though it will put up Farooq Sattar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for a token contest against whoever the PPP finally names as its prime ministerial candidate.

A bitter power struggle within the PPP over the next prime minister overshadowed the inauguration of the new National Assembly as well as its potential confrontation with the president over the restoration of about 60 judges of superior courts he sacked under his controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency, the problem of his sweeping powers under which he can sack a prime minister and dissolve the National Assembly, and the next government’s immediate problems of tackling militant violence and economic hardships.

A wave of more than two weeks of a whispering campaign against Mr Fahim took a new turn on Monday when posters against him appeared outside the Parliament House just before a joint meeting of the parliamentary groups of the PPP and other coalition partners — the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.The posters, which a PPP source said could be the work of some intelligence agency, were removed on the initiative of a PPP parliamentary official before the start of the meeting, which was jointly chaired by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Mr Fahim as president of the party’s parliamentary arm of PPP Parliamentarians, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan and MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

But rumours about the possible consequences of the perceived rift in the PPP continued to swirl in the galleries before the focus shifted to the administration of oath to the members by outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain while non-members Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif watched part of the proceedings from what is known as the Prime Minister’s Gallery and PML-Q president Shujaat Hussain, who failed to win any of the seats he contested in the Feb 18 vote, from the Speaker’s Gallery.

As Mr Fahim’s turn came to sign the roll after the oath-taking midway through more than three hours of proceedings, he got the best of the applause prominent members received on the day. Members of the PPP-led coalition as well as from other parties cheered by desk-thumping when his name was called and then there was a louder repeat of the ovation when he went to the dais to sign the register.

A beaming Fahim went around the house to thank members and have brief chats with them.

CHANGE OF HEART OR PLOY: It was not immediately clear if the ovation for Mr Fahim reflected a change of heart on the part of Mr Zardari, whose present position has given him the last word in the choice and who had appeared in recent days having second thoughts about the most senior party figure’s candidature, or just a damage-control ploy after weeks of a bitter controversy, fuelled by a nascent but fiercely competitive electronic media, seemed to reflect on the party’s new leadership so soon after the Dec 27 assassination of party leader Benazir Bhutto.

A special prayer was offered for Ms Bhutto before the oath-taking proceedings started after overcoming a brief hitch caused by a point raised by PPP’s Naveed Qamar that members of what will be the new ruling coalition did not recognise amendments in the constitution decreed by the president under the Nov 3 emergency in his now abandoned capacity of the chief of the army staff.

The matter seemed resolved by the Speaker’s explanation that no change had been made in the text of the oath. But still the coalition members twice added spoken words to the text of oath as read out by the chair to make it clear they were committing to protect the Constitution as it existed before the Nov 3 emergency.

PAT FOR A NEMESIS: Another highlight of the sitting was Speaker Hussain’s pat for a woman who became his nemesis in the election, which saw several pillars of the former ruling party falling, including party president Shujaat Hussain and several ministers of the previous cabinet.

Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, who contested as a PPP candidate after defecting the PML-Q as an MNA, defeated Mr Hussain in his home constituency in the Sialkot district of the Punjab province despite the influence he allegedly used as Speaker and acting president for a brief period when President Musharraf was on a foreign trip.

Dr Awan went to the speaker’s chair after signing the roll and, according to her, made an ironic request for a ‘shabash’ (appreciation) from him.

The speaker was seen patting on the head of the member who later told reporters he also said: “Well done!”

BURQA-LESS HOUSE: It was a burqa-less house as none of the women members wore that veil mainly because of the virtual rout of a divided MMA alliance of religious parties in the election.

The previous National Assembly had 12 MMA and one PPP burqa-clad members. The only MMA woman member elected this time to a reserved seat for non-Muslim minority communities from Balochistan province, Asia Nasir, is a Christian who doesn’t wear a veil and neither of the other parties has a burqa-wearing member. Only one woman member in the house, whose affiliation was not immediately known, covered her lips and chin with her traditional chador.

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