ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: ARD’s parliamentary leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said on Friday that treasury members had moved a resolution and a reference in the National Assembly to disqualify some of the opposition members in an attempt to pave the way for President General Pervez Musharraf’s address to the joint session of parliament.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Hashmi, who is also PML-N’s acting president, said the resolution moved by Sher Afgan Khan and the reference presented by Wasi Zafar were part of the strategy adopted by the ruling coalition following a meeting between the president and 40 of its MNAs lat week.

He feared the National Assembly speaker would suspend the membership of some 20 to 40 most active opposition members for a certain period during which the ruling coalition would invite the president to address the joint session.

Already, he said, there were reports in a section of the Press that Gen Musharraf wanted to address parliament on Sept 10 or 19 before leaving for the United States.

The ARD leader vowed to counter all such moves and said the opposition would in no way allow Gen Musharraf to step into the house.

He criticized the treasury benches for discussing the opposition members’ attitude in the house in their absence. He said the opposition had given the treasury members a free hand for legislation by walking out of the house, but they wasted the time on needless discussions instead of debating public issues or doing some legislation. This, he maintained, proved that the government had no legislative agenda and wanted to make parliament a rubber stamp.

Referring to an allegation that the opposition had established a parallel parliament in the cafeteria where it held press conferences after staging walkouts, he said when the opposition would not be given a chance to speak on the floor of the house, then they were left with no other option but to reach people through press.