Wordy duels propelled the opposition initiated debate on freedom of the press for the second running day. The tempers ran high with the attacks and court attacks emanating from the senators belonging to both sides. The treasury side proved to the hilt that every thing was totally wrong on the other side. The opposition senators went on the prove the genuineness of the case of the Jang Group in the controversy raging in the capital. At time, the two sides hollered at one another, rendering the debate a stinging confrontation amongst themselves. At another point, senator Safdar Abbasi pushed things to the extreme when he employed a rather strong word to describe a colleague on the treasury benches who is the centre of the controversy.

An alert Chairman Wasim Sajjad, watchful as ever for strong epithets, expunged the seemingly harsh words. Several members from the government benches jumped, up and reacted sharply. They rose to protest against the words used by impish senator Safdar Abbasi. When the chairman asked Safdar Abbasi as to whom he had referred to in his attack, the PPP senator minced no words blurting out that he had referred to senator Saifur Rehman. There ensued another slanging match between the two sides.

For several minutes all hell broke loose in the house with government side senators demanding expunction of the remarks. Wasim Sajjad said he had already expunged the impugned words. Then they insisted that the senator should withdraw the words but he refused to oblige his critics. Interestingly, during the entire interlude, senator Saif was not present in the house. It was towards the fag end of the proceeding that he entered the senate. Saif sat with senator Bilour for considerable time.

Earlier, there was a war of words between the government and opposition sides when the latter insisted that during coverage of the proceedings the point of view of all the component groups of the opposition must be televised on PTV. Information Minister Mushahid appeared to be evasive. 

The leader of the house, Raja Zafarul Haq intervening in the debate cut the Gordian knot. He suggested that if the proceedings were to be recorded, then all the leaders of opposition groups should be covered, this put a dampener on the shouting and restored peace in the house. Aitzaz Ahsan thanked raja Zafarul Haq for his solution to the issue. Wasim Sajjad ordered the TV cameras to shot down their lights. He directed that in future if anything was to be televised in the house, he should be informed before hand. After the speeches of the senator from both sides, the chairman adjourned the house until Thursday morning when nominees of the government and the opposition leader would round off the debate.

Quorum syndrome figured in the national assembly for umpteenth times during the current session despite overwhelming majority of the ruling PML N in the house. The lack of quorum was pointed out by Naved Qamar and Shamsur Rehman Khattak on Wednesday. Speaker Soomro explained to the members that when the speaker has the floor, no member can interrupt him. But Naved Qamar came out with the justification that the members had pointed out the lack of quorum during the respite in his reading of the bill and so there was no violation of the rules. The speaker ordered the count of the members present in the house. Several ruling party members were seen rushing to the house. The speaker declared himself that the house was in order. One fact is evident that the ruling party members have lost edge in the proceedings of the house. So the majority of the ruling party hangs like alabaster stone on the neck of beautiful seabird.

During the current session of the national assembly, twice had the house to be adjourned because of lack of quorum. On one occasion last week, Asfandyar Wali Khan, parliamentary leader of the ANP had walked out from the house as a mark of protest when the NA staff deployed in the house counted senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and the speaker himself in the count. Mushahid is a Minister but he is not MNA. Asfandyar had insisted that though the speaker had declared the house to be in order, it was  not so the case. Talking to reporters in his chamber, Asfandyar said that the only option available with the opposition was to point out the matter and leave it to point out the matter and leave it to the discretion of the speaker. In NWFP assembly, he said the rules of procedure and conduct of business provided that after the lack of quorum had been pointed out, the members of the treasury benches and of the opposition benches are required to go to the separate lobbies. Hence, he said, there is no dispute on the quorum issue. What he employed that such an arrangement could be adopted in the national assembly.

Asfandyar Wali Khan made two other plus points culled from NWFP assembly rules of procedure and conduct of business. For example, he went on to say the Chairmen of Services & GA & Home Standing Committee and also of the Judicial Committee are always the nominees of the opposition leader. Third plus point of NWFP assembly, he said, was apart from the ruling party, there were separate chambers for each opposition party beside the chamber for the opposition in general. For the women MPAs there were separate chambers, individually too.

Coming to the chambers for the opposition in the National Assembly, there is chamber for the leader for the opposition. Asfandyar Wali Khan who is leader of the ANP parliamentary group, has under his occupation a chamber which he is holding unofficially. Asfandyar has refused to vacate it when an attempt was made to get it vacated. The third largest party MQM has no chamber of its own. They use cafeteria for their meetings. Similarly there is no chamber for the independent members group.

After the session of the national assembly, MQM legislators Aftab Sheikh MQM's parliamentary leader in NA Sheikh Liaquat Hussain and MNA Kunwar Khalid Yunus addressed press conference in the cafeteria. The sum and substance of their grouse was that the government was aiming at persecuting party legislators at both provincial and federal levels by involving them in trumped up and fabricated charges. The MQM leaders, feared that after nabbing five MPAs who were pursuing legal cases of the party activities in courts, the administration was out to arrest two legislators Sheikh Aftab and Kunwar Khalid Yunus by implicating them in false cases as soon as NA was prorogued . 

Kunwar Khalid Yunus had tried to raise the issue through privilege motion in the house earlier in the day but the matter was deferred due to absence of interior minister. During a calling attention notice of five PML N activists on the asylum given to MQM chief Altaf Hussain, the house was informed by minister of state for foreign affairs Mr Kanjo that the British bovernment had allowed to say in London for indefinite period. 

Danyal Aziz independent from Sialkot had to go at Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif for ordering the commercial banks under the federal control to make payments on CRF chits to the growers against sugarcane delivery, thereby burdening the banks by raising their default. His point was that this step amounted to wreaking havoc on the banking system. The beneficiaries were the sugar industrialists mainly and the loser was the banking system itself which was lending out against insufficient collateral to the sugar industrialists most them being the ruling party.

(Dawn 28.1.1999) 

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