ISLAMABAD, Sept 6: The opposition in the National Assembly marked the Defence Day on Tuesday in an aggressive style, asking Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down as president and army chief as the treasury benches appeared wanting to put up a good wordy fight.
A flurry of points of order turned into a debate on the 40th anniversary of 1965 Pakistan-India war, which often degenerated into invective forcing deputy speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub to expunge objectionable remarks from both sides.
It was the first time the National Assembly had met on the ‘65 war anniversary and opposition parties seized upon the occasion to criticize the president.
The ruling coalition appeared to have been taken by surprise and taunting speeches by some of its members only provoked opposition protests and indecent exchanges about the role of a political turncoat.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) member Liaquat Baloch initiated the debate saying the military had earned people’s displeasure by its repeated seizure of power. He proposed that a message on this day should go out for army to give up power, for the appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff, for end of the military-bureaucracy dominance and for acceptance of the supremacy of the constitution and parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi questioned the MMA’s right to object to Gen Musharraf’s presidency after supporting the 17th constitutional amendment and accused Mr Baloch of disobeying the constitution that allowed the president to retain his army uniform till 2007.
The minister provoked shouts of ‘lota, lota’ from opposition benches for defecting to the ruling coalition after being elected on a People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) ticket in the 2002 election.
Mr Baloch threatened that issues would be decided “on the streets and crossings” if the supremacy of parliament was not accepted.
Dr Niazi willingly accepted the description of ‘lota’ which he said was a useful water container used for cleanliness and added that most of the opposition members had been supporters of generals.
PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan said most members on the treasury benches had switched sides from either the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or the PPP. He expressed surprise how the minister had accepted being called a ‘lota’ although the description was regarded as a political abuse.
Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement questioned the MMA’s democratic credentials. He asked the alliance to explain why some of its member parties had used the Nizam-i-Mustafa slogan to topple then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s democratic government in 1977 and then ‘got him hanged’.
Ruling coalition member Riaz Hussain Peerzada earned opposition cheers as he accused the government of rigging the local body elections. “Whatever the government wants is all right and whatever it dislikes is illegal,” he said.
MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed accused President Musharraf of misleading the nation by violating his pledge to give up his uniform by Dec 31, 2004. He said Dr Niazi had switched sides to support the general after shouting ‘Musharraf murdabad’ in the assembly in 2002.
Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai urged all political parties to refrain from mud-slinging on one another. He asked them to unite to ‘force’ the military and intelligence agencies to end their hold on power if they failed to do so by requests and dialogue.
Parliamentary secretary for defence Tanveer Hussain Syed only provoked protests from opposition members whom he accused of playing to the gallery.
MMA’s Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani said many of the problems would be solved if it were determined who were the real masters of the country.
Minister of State for Interior Shahzad Waseem was the only speaker from the treasury benches who received a quieter hearing when he said the nation was behind the armed forces in the same way as it was in 1965 and asked political parties to forget their past mistakes and make a new beginning.
Ruling PML member M.P. Bhandara walked out of the house after complaining to the chair that the assembly’s time was being wasted on ‘invalid’ points of order while a long agenda set for Tuesday’s private members’ day had not been touched.