Pakistan Views

New federal legislators-elect were sworn in on Monday in the maiden session of the National Assembly and there were sharp indications of incoming government being hostile to President Pervez Musharraf. Speaker of the outgoing National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain administered the oath to over 325 members.
Heavy security was deployed in and around the parliament building after a weekend bomb blast in the city that targeted foreign nationals. Parliamentarians, media men and visitors had to pass through several layers of security including metal-detecting walk through gates before they were allowed into the hall and overflowing galleries. Festive atmosphere turned a bit panicky when some reporters scuffled with visitors who amassed in front of an entrance into a gallery specified for journalists, forcing them to wait in an undisciplined queue.
STRONG VIBES: Even before the formal proceedings started, top parliamentarians from election winning parties insisted they would take oath under the original constitution of Pakistan tailored back in 1973 by the then prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Members from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had earlier rejected their swearing in through a constitution amended by Musharraf on November 2 last year by virtue of declaring an emergency rule.
The two major election winners together with Awami National Party (ANP) have already set themselves onto a confrontation course with Musharraf by agreeing to reinstate through parliament the judges of top judiciary the President removed last November.
PPP leader Naveed Qamar put forward a demand that members wanted to be sworn in under the original constitution and not the one Musharraf modified as military chief. Things moved ahead after Speaker Amir Hussain, who chaired the session to administer the oath, clarified that at least swearwords were the same.
“I will never work against the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. I will always be loyal to my country,” members recited in chorus, following Amir and reading from a one-page document.”As on November 2,” almost all of them added when the speaker read the word constitution although it was not part of the transcript they were holding in their hands. Members later signed one by one a list containing their names to enrol themselves with the secretariat of the National Assembly.
PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal said the presence of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his party chief Nawaz Sharif in the parliament suggested people had rejected the coup of October 12, 1999. Ahsan referred to a bloodless take-over by the military loyal to its ex-chief and pointed towards Zardari and Sharif sitting side by side in one of the galleries because they were not elected. President of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was also among the viewers of the first session of the new National Assembly. The lower house of the parliament met as a fight within PPP over who should become the premier continued to fade hopes of new set-up being able to move against Musharraf collectively. One of strongest aspirants, PPP senior vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, is reportedly manoeuvring personally against the wishes of Zardari who himself has an hitherto unexpressed ambition for the slot.
An indication of Fahim being backed by a considerable majority within the PPP emerged when members continued to thump their desk for at least two minutes when he walked towards the speaker dais to sign the roll. Prayers were offered for former premier Benazir Bhutto. The house is now scheduled to meet again on Wednesday to elect new speaker and his deputy.