This was good, just shows how powerful the opposition is in this government.
‘No-LFO-no, go-speaker-go’
http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/fea.htm#1
M. Ziauddin
An in-session parliament costs the exchequer approximately about Rs8,000 a minute, according to a rough estimate produced over a cup of tea in parliament’s cafeteria by PML-Q’s minority MNA from Rawalpindi, M.P. Bhandara, known as Mino Bhandara. He seems to have included in the estimate even the notional rent for the space as well as utility charges and salaries of the secretariat staff besides the allowances and perks of members.
He is, therefore, very sad at the way the time of the house is being ‘wasted’ on ‘irrelevancies’. He says he has written a detailed letter to the relevant persons inviting their attention to this ‘waste’ and telling them that it was precisely for this reason that previous parliaments could not complete their tenures.
If one went by Mr Bhandara’s estimate, the loss to the exchequer on Wednesday would be a colossal Rs2.5 million because from the very word go the opposition made it impossible for the house to take up any of the subjects on the list in the Order of the Day. Even the question hour was set aside. And finally the speaker had to call it a day around 8:30pm without disposing of any business, to meet again on Friday at 10am.
Within minutes of the commencement of the sitting the hall started echoing with cries of ‘No-LFO-No’, ‘Go-speaker-Go’ and ‘Go-Musharraf-Go’. And all through the sitting, which was adjourned twice, once for Maghrib prayers and again for the opposition and the ruling alliance to meet and come to some kind of settlement on the contentious issue of the LFO, the opposition kept chanting these slogans. At times they were even heard calling out ‘Allah-o-Akber’
One could clearly see that the house was seemingly being given a taste of what is to be expected on the day the president would come to parliament to address the joint sitting. But then such a session is hardly likely to take place in a hurry because the opposition has already warned that it will not allow parliament to function unless the speaker announced his ruling on the LFO which he has kept reserved for almost three months now.
Mr Bhandara’s concerns about financial losses appear legitimate. And one would like to agree with him that it was because of the failure of previous parliaments to accomplish serious legislative work that they did not last long. But then what does a parliament do when it has no legislative work to do? That is exactly the dilemma the present parliament is facing. All the legislative work which it was supposed to be handling has already been done by Pakistan’s army chief who was elected to the office of the president through a questionable referendum last year.
In such a situation what would members do with their time in the NA if they are stopped even from misusing their right to discuss ‘irrelevancies’ on points of order? Members are not even allowed to discuss the LFO in the house. They have been asked to muster two-thirds majority to throw it out. And by ruling that the Provisional Constitutional Order (which does not exist any more) empowered the COAS to amend the constitution the Supreme Court which itself does not have the right to make laws or amend the constitution has rendered the elected house redundant and by implication told the members that they are there only to provide the label of democracy to the military ruler.
The members who were agitating on Wednesday in the NA perhaps do not like to be the willing collaborators in such a cover up. Interestingly, even the members of the ruling alliance appeared totally indifferent to the plight of the speaker on Wednesday. He was provided no help from the treasury benches. One could see Water and Power Minister Aftab Sherpao of PPP-S, who has a huge stake in the new set-up, trying to get things sorted out. But no other minister appeared to be listening to him.
In fact, at one stage, Mr Sherpao was seen giving up the effort in a huff. Some of the ruling alliance partners like Nasir Chattha, Tahirul Qadri and even Sher Afgan Khan Niazi of PPPP-Patriots were seen siding with the opposition. The chief whip of the ruling alliance, Abdul Sattar Laleka, appeared too busy without doing anything. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed went out of the hall and was seen spewing venom against the opposition in the corridors while talking to journalists.
A visitor who had seen it all since 1985 said he had not witnessed such a scene in the National Assembly ever before. One tends to agree with him because what had happened during the joint sitting addresses of Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Farooq Leghari, in retrospect look like child’s play compared to what happened on Wednesday.
The way the opposition behaved on Wednesday it appeared as if it was not only the LFO which had provoked them. The MMA, at least, was furious because on Tuesday the prime minister had implied publicly that there was a link between Al Qaeda and Jamaat-i-Islami by recalling that all the three big fish of the Al Qaeda were arrested at the houses of JI workers.
The PPP was also enraged because of the prime minister’s relentless attacks on Benazir Bhutto. The prime minister keeps on expressing his earnest desire to take every one along, including the opposition, but never misses an opportunity to throw a left hook at them in public. But then perhaps, he too does not have much to say in public other than hit out at the opposition.
