ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: Soon after suffering its first legislative defeat in the present National Assembly on Tuesday, the government joined hands with the opposition to pose a second challenge to hurried local government elections on Supreme Court’s orders.

The demand, in a unanimous resolution, to fix a new “practical date” for the elections in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan – while a schedule for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is yet to be announced – was made to the Election Commission of Pakistan, but the swipe was indirectly directed at the Supreme Court on whose orders the ECP issued the controversial schedules.

But, despite the sound and fury in the house, including complaints of “stubbornness” in one institution encroaching upon the domain of others, and assertions of the concept of supremacy of parliament over all other institutions in the country, questions were asked about how to force the implementation of this as well as another unanimously adopted house resolution of Thursday on the same issue if they were ignored either by the ECP or the Supreme Court.

The new resolution, which followed a fiery speech by Leader of Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah of the PPP talking of the present government making the life of people miserable and of judicial “stubbornness” that he said could destroy an institution, came the day the ECP found its petition seeking permission to extend the election schedules returned by the SC registrar as being not worth entertaining -- on the ground that the main petition had been disposed of earlier by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The ECP, which had expressed inability to hold the elections under the present schedules, has vowed to file a new petition next week.

The four-paragraph text, voted upon before the house was prorogued after a nine-day session, said the house was “fully conscious of the imperative” to hold local government elections, and -- as if to emphasise a perceived lack of scope for the apex court to intervene in matters like election schedules --demanded that the ECP carry out its functions “as stated in Article 140A (2) of the Constitution” and hold the elections “in a fair, free and transparent manner as soon as possible”. And it added: “This house reiterates that elections carried out in haste will violate the above article.”

The main Article 140A says that “each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments”, while its sub-clause (2), inserted through the Eighteenth Amendment, says: “Elections to the local governments shall be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan.” Calling for new schedules to allow for more time needed to complete jobs like delimitation of constitutions and printing of millions of ballot papers by the state-run Printing Corporation of Pakistan, the resolution, signed by the representatives of all parliamentary parties in the house, demanded that the ECP “fix a practical date after ensuring that all legal and administrative arrangements are in place in the entire country”.

Mr Khursheed Shah, apparently referring to the judiciary, called for refraining from taking decisions that can “destroy institutions” and said: “This house appeals that don’t destroy this institution with stubbornness. This is clear it is stubbornness.”

From the government side, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said some way out would have to found and, while speaking of the danger of contempt of court, quoted a line from the poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor of undivided India: “Baat karni mujay mushkal kabhi aisi to na thi” (it has never been so difficult to talk).

And one ruling PML-N back-bencher, Shaikh Rohale Asghar, asked for how long this house would continue tolerating insults with the disregard to its supremacy and said: “Refusal to accept this resolution would mean a refusal (to accept) your existence”.

A government ally and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that while the lawmakers did not seek a “clash of institutions”, this resolution “has the position of an order to the Election Commission”.

GOVT OUTNUMBERED: Earlier, the treasury benches, hit by absenteeism, found themselves outnumbered by the opposition when, after formal objection from Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, they failed to stop the introduction of an amendment to the house rules of procedure tabled by eight members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

While more members stood up in their seats to support the amendment than were present on the government benches, Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq avoided to announce the count result, conceding the ruling party’s first legislative defeat in the present house without ordering a count of the move’s opponents.

However, a face-saving was found by referring the amendment -- seeking to curtail the period to two months from six months for government divisions to inform the house about matters of privilege referred to them -- to the concerned standing committee of the house. The house allowed the introduction of three other ordinary private bills and their reference to standing committees concerned for consideration.

One bill introduced by Shirin Mazari of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf seeks to provide for parliamentary approval of all treaties signed by the government with other countries.

Another bill, authored by S.A. Iqbal Quadri and six other MQM members, seeks amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide for up to seven years’ imprisonment and fine for an SHO of a police station refusing or delaying the registration of an FIR of a crime.

Another bill of seven MMQM members seeks to amend the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal Act of 1992 to provide bearing expenses of medical treatment of poor citizens for fatal diseases like cancer, hepatitis-C, heart disease, renal failure, cirrhosis, etc.

SPARROWS: It was during a discussion on a private member’s resolution seeking government steps to alleviate poverty that the last day of the session saw what the speaker said were two sparrows, or “strangers in the house”, which somehow sneaked into chamber -- but signalled no spring in early winter.

One of the birds, dark brown with a black tail, even came to the press gallery and sat on a fence for a moment before flying down to the far end of the ruling party back benches.

While somebody from the house cried “drones in the house”, the speaker informed the house that his staff had been trying to drive out the two birds since morning but without a success.

However, he jokingly remarked that “we have sought army help”, which he said would make a successful job.