ISLAMABAD, July 29: The government, already reeling from disastrous events in the country, is likely to face the music in the National Assembly meeting on Monday but will still have the opportunity to laugh at the opposition’s divided house.
The government overcame its embarrassment over a landmark defeat in the chief justice case and called the lower house session that would begin at 5pm after a long recess of more than a month. The house has only three and half months left out of its five-year term.
Opposition sources said the government would be asked to explain why no heads had rolled after the July 20 Supreme Court verdict that reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and threw out the presidential reference seeking his removal on the alleged charges of misconduct.
Resignations would be demanded from Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who recommended the reference against the chief justice and President Gen Pervez Musharraf, who sent it to the Supreme Judicial Council on March 12 that set off the country’s worst judicial crisis.
Although it is not certain if the 342-member house will be able to take up any real business on the first day of what may be its last session, opposition sources say questions will be asked during the session about the consequences of Supreme Court ruling and other important matters such as the military operation against religious militants in Islamabad’s Lal Masjid early this month that killed more than 100 people and a wave of devastating suicide bomb attacks in the capital and in the north-west of the country.
Opposition parties have already proposed a resolution in the house to congratulate the apex court for its ruling on the chief justice case by its 13-judge bench.
NIAZI’S BRAVE FACE: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, known for putting on a brave face in unhappy situations, said the government was well prepared to face the opposition onslaught. “We are fully prepared for this,” he told Dawn when asked about the possible opposition challenges.
Even Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain is likely to face the opposition’s ire for not sending to the Election Commission an opposition reference handed over to him in the last session seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Aziz in retaliation to a similar reference filed and sent to the commission last month.
The speaker was bound by the Constitution’s Article 63 (2) to refer the matter to the chief election commissioner within 30 days after receiving it and an opposition source even said Mr Hussain could be accused of high treason under Article 6 for allegedly subverting the Constitution by failing to do what he did with the reference against Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Chief Imran Khan.But Mr Niazi said the reference against the prime minister, accusing him of wrongdoing in last year’s scrapped sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills and a stock market crash, was rightly not referred to the EC because it was not accompanied by necessary documentary evidence -- a requirement that he said he and some members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had fulfilled in the two separate references they filed against Imran Khan on the basis of the former cricket hero’s alleged affair with the now dead British heiress Sita White.
Although the ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), seemingly is faced with its worst crisis of confidence due to a spate of embarrassing developments, it is not clear whether the opposition parties will be able to put up a collective show after their latest rows over the formation of the new All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) alliance without the inclusion of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Friday's reported controversial meeting -- though not yet confirmed by either side -- between President Musharraf and self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.A lot of pin-pricks are likely between members from the APDM parties and those of the PPP, which did not join the new alliance unless the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal quits its coalition government with the ruling PML in Balochistan province.
And that may provide the apparently depressed ruling coalition party something to cheer about amid speculations about an early demise of their government and an early dissolution of the National Assembly mainly as a consequence of the Supreme Court ruling and the latest law and order situation that seems to be getting out of the administration’s control.
But Mr Niazi rejected this speculation as wrong and said: “Inshallah (God willing) we will complete our five-year term”.
He said the present session was likely to continue for a month as the house must remain in session for at least 71 more days during its life until November 15 to meet a mandatory minimum of 130 days of session in a parliamentary year.
Mr Niazi said the government’s legislative business would include consideration of 13 presidential ordinances promulgated after the last session of the house, which must be passed by both houses of parliament to become permanent laws.
But in continuation of a controversial practice always objected by the opposition, the official APP news agency said four presidential ordinances were issued on Sunday because the National Assembly was not in session.
This is likely to give new ammunition to the opposition to assail the government for taking an easy route to rule through ordinances instead of bringing bills to parliament.