Front Page   

Pro-Musharraf party wants House session put off

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Nov. 5. In a new twist to efforts towards government formation, the parliamentary leader of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (QA), Chaudhry Shujjat Hussain, tonight petitioned the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, to postpone the inaugural session of the National Assembly scheduled for November 8.

Request by the `King's party' to defer the session is a clear sign of panic and its failure to muster the required numbers for a simple majority. Of course, Mr. Hussain has sought to explain his action as intent to take everyone on board and form a national consensus government despite his group commanding a majority in the House.

Mr. Hussain said that he sought postponement after he `heard' that the parliamentary leader of the Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, had made a similar appeal to the President. While Mr. Fahim was unavailable to confirm or deny it, his party colleagues insisted that there was no truth in the report.

The `King's party' leader maintained that his party had held talks with the other political parties about the session and "we had reached a conclusion that the Assembly session on Friday would be useless".

Interestingly, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan, Irshad Hasan Khan, on Monday wrote to Gen. Musharraf asking him to nominate someone other than him to preside over the inaugural session. Strangely, he quoted television reports to substantiate his point about he being asked to preside over the inaugural session. Officially no such request has been made to the CEC. Request for the postponement of the inaugural session came hours after political parties opposed to policies of the Musharraf Government today claimed to have arrived at an understanding to form a government.

The chief office-bearer of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, announced here that "consensus over all political matters, office of the new Prime Minister and the new Speaker for the National Assembly including the setting up of a new government at the Centre has been reached among all the ARD leaders.''

It is believed that the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, has agreed to let the nominee of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Fazlur Rehman, to become Prime Minister. The alliance of religious parties and ARD constituents together could just manage the required 168 members. But there is little doubt that it would be a very fragile government as it might have just one vote majority over the pro-Musharraf parties.

The rebel Muslim Leaguers nicknamed as `King's party' had named Zafrullah Khan Jamali as their candidate for Prime Ministership and asserted that they had more than the required numbers.

A senior PPP leader told The Hindu that the support of his party would be conditional.

"We are yet to decide whether to join the Government with the alliance of religious parties. If we have no option but to support Fazlur Rehman, we would insist on a common minimum programme,'' the PPP leader said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• PM for ASEAN-India free trade area
• Mufti wants dialogue with all J&K groups
• Governor meets Advani
• 5 killed as IAF fighter crashes into residential area
• Jayalalithaa calls for fixed agenda at CRA meetings
• BJP rebels to finalise strategy today
• 1 dies as train rams another
• Violence in Ahmedabad
• Pro-Musharraf party wants House session put off

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu