Date:23/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082307991600.htm

International

No-trust vote move in Pakistan

Nirupama Subramanian

Ruling party makes light of the Opposition initiative

The numbers in House stacked against Opposition

Focus on corruption in privatisation of companies

ISLAMABAD: Mushahid Hussain, secretary-general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q), had his day cut out.

On Wednesday, the Opposition plans to submit a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the National Assembly. On Tuesday, after a long lunch with chairman of the party Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain and a few others, he was preparing to go home and later head out to the gym for a work out. In the evening, he was busy participating in a TV programme.

No crisis meetings, no hunkering down with party strategists. If the ruling party is worried, its senior functionaries are not showing it.

"You can see how relaxed we are. Nothing is going to happen with this no-confidence motion," said Mr. Hussain, PML(Q) secretary-general.

Even the Opposition admits it is unlikely to succeed in the initiative. The numbers are stacked against them. In a house of 342, the combine falls far short of the halfway mark.

"What sort of strategy is it when you know the outcome is failure and you still go ahead with it? It shows the complete bankruptcy of the Opposition," said Mr. Hussain. Despite the near-certainty of failure, the Opposition is gearing up for the event. On Monday, the 12-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy finalised the draft of the no-confidence motion against Mr. Aziz focussing on the alleged corruption in the privatisation of three public sector companies. Farahtullah Babar, a senior Pakistan People's Party leader and spokesman for party leader Benazir Bhutto, said the probable failure of the no-confidence motion would pale in the face of the unity the Opposition would have demonstrated. The PPP is the main constituent of the ARD.

Political agenda

Mr. Babar said the Opposition had already proved it was setting the political agenda, with the announcement of its planned no-confidence motion sparking a crisis between the PML(Q) and its ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, earlier this month.

But the ARD's alliance with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the coalition of religious parties, has the PML (Q) asking why Ms. Bhutto rails on BBC against the presence of religious parties in Pakistan as the main reason all terrorist trails lead here. "Which Benazir Bhutto do we believe? The one that gives statements to the western media or the one that has an alliance with the MMA at home?" asked Mr. Hussain.

The PPP says due to the fundamental differences between the two, the alliance is strictly for the purpose of the no-confidence motion. The differences got an early airing when the government presented the Bill for the Protection of Women 2006 on Monday.