The Hindu : Pak. House meets amid opposition to amendments

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

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Pak. House meets amid opposition to amendments

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Nov. 16. After a gap of over three years and a month, the doors of the Pakistan National Assembly were thrown open today but on a controversial note over the validity of the President, Pervez Musharraf's laws. The new Assembly met two hours after Gen. Musharraf was sworn in President for a further period of five years on the basis of the referendum held in April this year.

Gen. Musharraf took oath under the 1973 Constitution. Unless impeached by Parliament or unseated by courts, he will be President till November 16, 2007. The Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, Shaikh Riaz Ahmed, administered the oath of office at a ceremony held at the Jinnah Hall of the Aiwan-e-Sadr (presidential palace), before a galaxy of participants.

Neither Gen. Musharraf nor the parties opposed to him are in a mood, at least for now, for a compromise. This was evident when he ignored the demand of some parties to resign as the Army chief and come through Parliament for validation of his position as President, and the representatives of these parties insisted in the National Assembly that they did not recognise Gen. Musharraf's laws.

As per the original schedule, Gen. Musharraf was to have taken fresh oath of office and secrecy only after the National Assembly elected the Leader of the House, who would have been appointed the Prime Minister. However, it appears that Gen. Musharraf decided to reverse the order of things and perhaps not take any chances.

As soon as the Speaker of the last National Assembly (dissolved in June 2001), Ellahi Baksh Soomro, called the House to order, representatives of the alliance of religious parties and parties led by the former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, rose to seek clarification on the status of the Musharraf laws. The purpose of the inaugural session was to enable the newly-elected members to take oath of office.

Representatives of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League made it clear that they did not recognise the amendments made by Gen. Musharraf to the 1973 Constitution. They told Mr. Soormo that they would swear allegiance only to the Constitution as it stood on the day of the military coup in October 1999. Normality was restored only after Mr. Soomro informed them that he was administering the oath as prescribed in the Constitution before the `intervention' (military takeover).

Reacting to the fresh oath taken by Gen. Musharraf, Ms. Bhutto said it was "unconstitutional" and "immoral." The oath taken on Saturday, November 16, under the mixture of 1973 Constitution and the Legal Framework Order is the third oath taken by him in his life,'' she said.

The Ambassadors of the European Union stayed out of the oath-taking ceremony. Their move appeared hardly surprising, considering the strong stand taken by the E.U. against Gen. Musharraf's referendum early this year and his subsequent constitutional amendments.

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