Read this. Inside account of what went on inside the Assembly Hall. Kind of funny.
http://brecorder.com/story.php?css=brecord.css&story=0000657890&m=0&s=0
From a Ringside seat
IKRAMUL HAQ
ISLAMABAD (November 17 2002) : It was a sad, nostalgic feeling that at the inaugural session of the National Assembly-the first of the new millennium-, two familiar faces in the middle of the front row, just opposite the Speaker’s rostrum, who were seen throughout the last decade of the 1990s-Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif-were missing.
Such is the twist of fortune the two, who indulged in personal acrimony in many a debate, out to dethrone each other, were now in exile and their followers were now willing to forget their old animosity. They are now forging fresh camaraderie to restore what they call genuine democracy after the fateful events of October 12, 1999, which was welcomed by all except a few.
As has been in the past, the maiden session, though confined to oath-taking, was a lively event as members exuding warmth and high spirits greeted, embrace or hugged each other. The new assembly, a gift of the President in uniform, was particularly so.
Many veterans of the game were not there, but youthful and cheerful faces were seen. Above all, a large number of women-maidens and mothers and perhaps no grandmother-cast a different sort of aura in the house. There were a good number, especially among the nominated ones, wearing ‘hijab’ and burqa covering head to foot, and others in sharp contrast to the “moving tents” as western journalists used to call them.
The other breed of lady MNAs were stylishly dressed, suitably made up, half-in-half-sleeve colourful clothes, in bobbed hairs, or otherwise, but mostly dyed in attractive shades. The mere presence of large number of women, (whom Chaucer mentioned as woe to man) will have a sobering effect on the tenor of the debates and many foul-mouthed male chauvinists would have to restrain themselves from indecorous language or filthy exchanges more like the barraks or brawls in Punjabi films than pleasing intellectual exchanges befitting the august forum. Luckily all the members, ladies included, are ‘graduates’, some from foreign universities, and they would behave seriously and show true commitment to true democracy.
Around 11. 20 am, when the august house was lit up with hundreds of bulbs, just before the arrival of the Speaker, nay Presiding Officer, Ilahi Bukhsh Somroo, a veteran journalist sitting by my right, recited a half verse of Urdu: “Din giney jaate thay jis din ke liay. woh din aa gaya.”, meaning, the day has at last come - the one which was waited for days."
The other half of the verse was symbolically more interesting, rather pertinent. It says " Wasal ki shab aur itni mukhtasar. Din giney jate thay jis din kay liay." (The night of union was very short, and yet we waited it for days and days).
Ironically, the country’s tryst with democracy is painfully running on a parallel course. Short, followed by a long, long wait. It struck me that democracy has been running on a very short path, like the ‘Shahrah-I-Jamhuriat’ in Islamabad. Not many residents know on which corner of Islamabad it is located. The bitter fact is that it is one of the shortest roads, to call it a ‘shahrah’ (highway) would be a travesty of truth. Starting from the Constitution Avenue from Pakistan Broadcasting House, it goes westward, and winds up to a distance of not more than a furlong, joining the covered Bazaar Road on the Sixth Avenue. How on earth democracy can take off on that strip of a road, whereas a twin-engine plane could not fly from there.
Though the sitting was long, and somewhat boring as each of 328 odd members was called to the rostrum. They signed against their names and went to the Presiding Officer who extended him greetings, or blessing. It was quite a touching sight when the silvery haired Saumur patted with fatherly affection a number of the young lady members, in their twenties perhaps. The male MNAs were warmly embraced or hugged.
Nevertheless, there were two incidents, rather verbal slips, which would make the sitting memorable. First, during the oath taking, the members were repeating the oath as the presiding officer read it haltingly. During the oath taking, the Presiding Officer said: Yahan apna naam leejiye. (Here speak your name) and the members too parroted out: “here take your name.” The house burst in an uproar of laughter at the faux pas by the ‘graduate filled’ assembly.
The other occasion arose when at the end of the oath, the members vowed to defend the integrity of the country. The oath was in Urdu and the Presiding Officer, instead of “Difaa karoonga” uttered “dafah karoonga”. However, he quickly made amends.
This reminded the journalists how a minister for religious affairs in a written address of welcome to President Zia-ul-Haq on the occasion of Seerat function in a former assembly hall, repeatedly read ‘Nabi Israel’ instead of ‘Bani Israel’ (tribe of Israel) without realising his mistake.
With a proliferation of graduate MNAs, eager to resurrect democracy, and motivated to its ideals, let us hope they will not let the country down. Amen!
The proceedings were watched by a record crowd of diplomats, members of the armed forces resplendent in their formal uniforms and decorations, law officers of the state lead by Syed Sharif-ud-Din Pirzada and the Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan, diplomats accredited to Islamabad, an unusually large number of journalists and relatives of the newly elected legislators.
The first to arrive in the Diplomatic Gallery was Ambassador Nancy Powell of the US followed by the Nigerian Ambassador who clad in his national robes and a red round cap sat next to her and held a long animated conversation. The gallery was soon filled with more diplomats and was full to its capacity, while the other enclosures took time to fill.
Most of the Pakistani visitors had glided down from the nearby hill on which the Aiwan-e-Sadar is perched and a few minutes earlier had the swearing in ceremony of the General Pervez Musharraf as President for next five years.
Because of the overcrowding of the routes leading from the Presidency to the Parliament and jamming of the traffic, the oath-taking started nearly 20 minutes late - at 11.20 am instead when the past-speaker Illahi Bux Soomro, designated by the President for the job was announced by the Sergeant- at- Arms.
And with that the noisy discussions by group meetings came to an end and members returned to their seats under a tense calm. Soomro had hardly taken his seat when the left side of the house buzzed with calls of points of order over an erratic public address system. Several members stood up in their seats while the new comers raised their hands in the school boy manner trying to catch his eye. All this while the presiding officer called for order over his microphone, which seemed to function flawlessly.
The sum total of the voices was that the members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the PPPP (known as P-4 after the latest brand of Personal Computers) and the dwarfed parliamentary party of the PML (N) said they would not accept any oath less than the one prescribed in the 1973 Constitution. The MMA spokesman, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said they will not accept the Legal Framework Order.
The noisy situation was however, brought to a calm when raising his voice Soomro said waved the Green covered book of the Constitution in one hand and an oath printed on a leaflet in the other and asked members to send a representative to compare the two writings themselves.
'If you had listened to me before raising these unfounded fears, we would have moved on with the task before us", he admonished the members-elect mildly and briskly moved to the rostrum asking the members to repeat after him the words of the printed oath already placed before them by the Assembly Staff earlier.
Within second all sections of the House broke into peels of laughter and broke the tension when the members-elect having lost an opportunity for fireworks obeyed Soomro’s instructions on reading of the oath to the word. Instead of inserting their names after the opening word of “I” they repeated the former Speaker’s instruction to “now mention your name here”. Even Soomro did not comprehend the indiscretion and went over to the next sentence “do solemnly swear” when a suppressed giggle stopped him in his tracks.
The abrupt silence and effort to scan the house to find the source of mirth burst the suppressed effort into a loud laughter and realising what had happened, Soomro and his charges joined the tension reliever. After that the whole ceremony that lasted nearly four hours had a smooth sailing.
So that Politicial leaders remain under Mush Danda. 