With the PM Battle over, expect some interesting battles in the Provinces, especially Sindh and Baluchistan. I am pretty sure PML(Q) is worried about what’s going to happen in the Senate especially because a ARD-MMA alliance can definitely form a large majority and capture the Senate Chairman. The Senate Chairman takes over as President in his absence. Sooo imagine Noorani as President when Mush goes on hollidays or foreign tour! So you can expect a lot of attempts at buying votes and stuff…
The caucus of veterans and newcomers
http://www.dawn.com/2002/text/fea.htm#3
Ismail Khan
President Gen Pervez Musharraf had promised the nation that he would
bring true democracy and new faces to parliament. Let it be known
that he has delivered on his promise. There were indeed new faces in
the NWFP Assembly on Monday. So many new faces and all looked so
strikingly similar that it was difficult to distinguish who was who.
This hapless nation of 140 million has seen assemblies come and go.
But this one is unique. There are a few veterans and many a novice.
There are many a bearded and a few clean-shaven. Veiled women members
outnumber those of the same gender who cover their heads only. There
are those who have done their Wafaqul Madaris and those who have done
their graduation.
Simply attired in white dress, white caps or wearing turbans, the MMA
MPAs distinguish themselves from the rest. Pir Mohammed Khan, who
does not sport a beard despite being an old Jamaat leader, is
probably the only exception in the MMA band.
The elderly Inayatullah Khan Gandapur attired in a suit and wearing a
feathered hat was the only one who stood out among the hordes of
MPAs. And the same goes for the women MPAs. There were 24 of them
there including the lady from Abbottabad who won on a general seat.
Covered from head-to-toe, the MMA women MPAs set themselves apart
from the rest of their women colleagues. One MMA woman MPA even wore
black woollen gloves to cover her hands when she walked to the podium
to sign roll call.
But this is as far as a distinction can be made. Beyond this, this
assembly does not appear to cause much inspiration. Consider this. An
MMA member rose on a point of order, although there was none that
could be made under the Rules of Business to ask the House to
recommend to the federal government that the oath to members of the
assemblies should be made in Arabic. This is a heavenly language, he
declared. This is the language of the Quran and this is the language
that would be spoken in heaven.
Alas, he genuinely felt, this is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
wherein the oath could only be taken in English, Urdu and Pushto! Not
that anybody paid much attention to it. The honourable member made
his point and sat down as quietly as he had risen from his seat.
Abdul Akbar Khan, the PPP MPA from Mardan, one of the recognizable
faces in the present House of 124 members, and a former speaker, did
try to trigger a debate on the status of the former speaker
Hidayatullah Khan Chamkani, who was presiding over the session.
The PPP MPA argued that Chamkani had ceased to become the speaker in
the light of a June 2001 notification and that a governor who had
taken the oath under the PCO had no legal right to nominate him as
the presiding officer. “The same authority that had seized my
function has now relieved me,” Chamkani responded. But Abdul Akbar is
not someone to be taken lightly. A seasoned parliamentarian that he
is, he stirred up a small debate on LFO.
Like opposition members in the National Assembly, Abdul Akbar too,
wanted to know whether the oath being administered to them was under
the LFO. A true Piplian, Abdul Akbar is also taken to filibustering.
Holding the black-covered original 1973 Constitution in one hand the
PPP MPA threw to the floor the newly-printed and amended copy of the
Constitution, saying he did not recognize the right of a dictator to
change the unanimously-adopted document.
This led a few other MPAs to speak on the issue. One after the other,
they rose from their seats to demand of Chamkani to give a ruling on
the subject. “We will take the oath only under the 1973
Constitution,” they said. One MMA member said the religious alliance
planned to take the matter to the court. “We need your ruling so that
it forms the basis of our legal case,” he asked.
Deftly, Chamkani said the oath was the same as written in Article 65
of the 1973 Constitution. “You are free to go to court and challenge
the LFO,” he said.
Well, it is the 1973 Constitution. But what the presiding officer did
not say and nobody asked was whether it was the post-October 2000
amended 1973 Constitution And thus the maiden session of the present
assembly drew close to an end. All members rose to take the oath.
Chamkani asked the members to repeat the oath after him. What
however, happened turned the entire House into an amphitheatre.
The presiding officer was barely audible. The members without caring
to listen to him went ahead and read the oath ahead of him. “What is
this?” asked a bewildered Anwar Kamal Marwat of the PML-N. “Is this a
dars or an oath?”
This is the graduate assembly we all have been looking forward to.
Thank you Mr President.