ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: With its policy of walkouts and boycotts the opposition on Tuesday left the field open for the government to dismiss the High Treason Amendment Bill through a majority vote and to smoothly sail through more than 50 items on the agenda of the private member's day in the National Assembly.
However, sensing a lack of credibility to the legislative business carried out in the absence of the opposition, the government formed a ministerial committee comprising Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Ijazul Haq and Liaquat Jatoi to hold talks with the opposition to bring its members back in the house.
Some 40 private member bills, resolutions and amendments, moved by the opposition members, were rejected as their movers had walked out of the house.
When the proceedings of the day began, members of the combined opposition consisting of liberals, conservative and religious parties gathered near the speaker's podium and repeated their performance of the anti-LFO protests when the house echoed with slogan of "Go Musharraf go." The only new thing this time was a slogans directed against the presiding officer, "Go speaker go."
The slogan of "Go speaker go" was raised only for a short time because the opposition decided to walk-out of the house when the speaker, Caudhry Amir Hussain, warned the members against interrupting the proceedings of the house. "Don't force me to take any action," said the speaker.
The treasury benches briefly discussed the admissibility of a bill moved by Qazi Hussain Ahmed to amend the High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973 before it was dismissed through a majority vote in the absence of the opposition.
Participating in the debate on the admissibility of the bill, Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed emphasized the need for the opposition to be present in the house when sensitive and important legislative items were on the day's agenda. The minister suggested formation of a committee to bring the opposition back to the house which was accepted by the government after the Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Sher Afgan, supported the idea.
Sheikh Rasheed indirectly accused the opposition of trying to sabotage the democratic process and said that even leaders of the opposition parties were not following parliamentary traditions.
Malik Allahyar suggested that the debate on the bill be deferred till the opposition returned to the house but Sheikh Rasheed put the ball in the court of the minister for parliamentary affairs. "We would follow the minister for parliamentary affairs," he said.
Dr Afgan, taking advantage of opposition's absence from the house, made indirect references to MMA's alleged double dealings on important legislations in the past and opposed the bill on technical grounds.
Dr Afgan said Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Liaquat Baloch were aware of the importance of the High Treason Amendment Bill. However, he said, the MMA leaders considered it important to walk out of the house.
Dr Afgan said the bill was not a simple piece of legislation but had the potential to open a whole Pandora's box of matters going back to the first imposition of martial law in 1958. He called for dropping the bill.
Minister for Law Wasi Zafar and Minister for State and Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Haraj also called for rejecting the MMA's bill. "Dr Afgan has given the government's viewpoint," said Mr Haraj.
Speaking on a point of order, Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Jatoi called for rejecting the MMA's bill and said the opposition should respect the verdict of the majority in true democratic spirit. He said the opposition was setting new and unhealthy traditions of not respecting the majority's decisions in favour of President Gen Musharraf holding two offices.
The house also adopted a resolution moved by MP Bhandara to include the Quaid-i-Azam's speech delivered in the inaugural session of the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, in the curriculum at all levels. He read out some sections of Quaid's speech which, he said, had been censored in the past.
MNA Bhandara referred to the independence movement and blasted the religious parties for opposing the creation of Pakistan and Quaid-i-Azam.
He said he had a new definition of minority under which the minority was that segment of the society which did not follow the edicts of the father of the nation and which had denounced the Quaid as Kafir-i-Azam during the pre-independence struggle.
Condemning the recent attack on the Sikh holy shrine of Nankana Sahib, Mr Bhandara said the government should tender an apology to the Sikh community. MNA Gyan Singh said the Sept 25 desecration of Nankana Sahib was an un-Islamic act.
Dr Afgan moved a resolution condemning the "unruly behaviour of miscreants who attempted to desecrate the holy shrine of Nankana Sahib and called for giving them strict punishment under the law of the land." The resolution was accepted by the house.
The minister said the National Assembly would send the resolution to the Punjab government for implementation. He said the action taken by the Punjab government against the miscreants would be reported back to the house.
The government also allowed treasury MNA Gul-i-Farkhanda and others to introduce "The Control of Thalassaemia Bill, 2004" to control the "rapidly increasing disease of thalassaemia in Pakistan which affects 5,000 to 7,000 children every year and where more than 10 million children are thalassaemia patients."
The speaker clubbed together identical bills moved by some opposition members on the issue. The house was later adjourned to meet again on Thursday morning.